Burn, Berlin, Burn

Performer: Atari Teenage Riot
Producer: Alec Empire
Distributor: NAIL Distribution

Notes: Atari Teenage Riot: Alec Empire, Hanin Elias, Carl Crack. Principally recorded at Empire Studios, Berlin, Germany between 1994 and 1996. Rarely has a band been more appropriately named than the German trio of Alec Empire, Hanin Elias, and Carl Crack. Crossing the title of Sonic Youth's 1988 anthem of disaffection with the name of the video game company that shaped the leisure hours of an entire generation, Atari Teenage Riot combines the stridency and political bent of '80s hardcore with a fascinating electronic aesthetic. The group is simultaneously up-to-the-minute and engagingly nostalgic. Bandleader/mouthpiece Empire, whose solo records are even more sonically ambitious than those of his band, understands the ironic power of sloganeering. The titles and the hyper-speed lyrics include such pearls as "Fuck All," "Deutschland Has Gotta Die," and "Destroy 2000 Years of Culture." BURN BERLIN BURN is not an easy listen, but the album has a lyrical and aesthetic value far more interesting than the majority of faceless '90s electronica efforts.

Rolling Stone (5/15/97, p.115) - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...attacks the system with a blinding noise that blends the tempos and polemics of hardcore punk with the techniques and technology of electronica..."

Combining driving techno beats with the musical fury and political sloganeering of hardcore punk, Berlin-based Atari Teenage Riot, led by DJ and techno artist Alec Empire, were at the fore of the Digital Hardcore movement based around Empire's label of the same name. Atari Teenage Riot viewed themselves as a vital alternative to both a politically reactionary dance music scene and a tepid punk scene in Germany in the 1990s. ATR/DHR albums were released on the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal Records in the United States.

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