Atari Teenage Riot - Biography
Atari Teenage Riot was at the forefront of post-Prodigy pre-electroclash hardcore techno in the mid 1990s. The group, centered around producer Alec Empire, blended hardcore rave and jungle with anthemic punk rock, digital noise, screeching vocals and heavily charged political views to create a stomping, throbbing, outrageous wall of sound that was hard to ignore. The band straddled the line between avant-garde electronics and mainstream alternative rock and found a large audience in the process. Opening minds to noise music and left of center politics, Atari Teenage Riot captured our attention with its powerful, energetic sound.
Founded in Berlin in 1992 by Alec Empire, Hanin Elias and Carl Crack the band centered around the production skills of Empire. The first singles by ATR boasted insanely fast tempos, brittle breakbeats, huge guitars and impassioned, urgent vocals. Early songs, with heavy-handed titled like “Hunt Down The Nazis,” “Deutschland Has Gotta Die!” and “Start The Riot,” were slathered in controversy and caused a stir in Germany for their outspoken anti-neo Nazi stance.
After several early singles on labels like Vertigo and Riot Beats, the band set up Digital Hardcore Recordings to serve as an outlet for its music. DHR was notoriously founded with the huge advance the band received from British major label Phonogram. ATR signed with the label and never provided them with a release. The DHR label allowed the group to have complete control over its output. ATR’s first full-length, originally titled 1995 but later reissued as Delete Yourself!, appeared in ’95. It’s arguably the band’s defining moment, boasting frenetic beats, monolithic guitar riffs and screaming vocals. These songs are impossibly fast, showcasing Empire’s deft drum programming. The tempo dictates everything else and the band’s point gets across through sheer speed. Empire also works in layers of shifting digital noise, adding to the level of disorientation and urgency.
In ’96 ATR inked a stateside distribution deal with the Beastie Boys’ label Grand Royal. The label released several singles and EPs as well as the compilation Burn, Berlin Burn! in ’97. That same year ATR released its second full-length, The Future Of War. ATR had found its intense template early in its career and this second record didn’t deviate from it. Tracks like “Destroy 2000 Years Of Culture” and “You Can’t Hold Us Back” define the breakcore sound from this time.
From ’96 to ’98 the group enjoyed surprising success in America. It’s hard to imagine a heavily politicized techno band achieving what ATR did. The Beastie Boys endorsement led to tours with Rage Against The Machine, Beck and the Wu-Tang Clan as well as college radio and MTV airplay. During this time noise musician Nic Endo joined the band for live shows and the recording of its last album.
60 Second Wipe Out was released in ’99 to massive critical acclaim. With Endo’s contributions the album has a much denser, richer sound. If ATR’s debut laid out the band’s M.O. from the start, 60 Second Wipe Out is the total culmination of the ATR sound — super energetic, angry, filled with speedfreak breakbeats and howling vocals. Empire’s experience making solo recordings, where he explored avant-garde noise, ambient soundscapes and complex drum programming, combined with Endo’s production skills make the last ATR album the most sonically interesting.
The band decided to go on hiatus in 2000, citing the intensity of its work as taking a toll, most notably on Carl Crack who was having mental issues and drug problems. Sadly Crack was found dead in his apartment in Berlin in September of 2001. The group has remained inactive although several posthumous compilations have been released in the last decade. In 2010 the group announced it was planning a reunion tour and new recordings are in the works featuring American MC CX Kidtronik.
By fusing together the most intense elements of drum and bass, hardcore techno and punk rock, Atari Teenage Riot created a modern protest band of harrowing ferociousness. Sonically and ideologically armed to the teeth, they did nothing if not violently grab our attention.