ATARI TEENAGE RIOT –
THE FUTURE OF WAR (DIGITAL HARDCORE RECORDINGS)
Atari Teenage Riot
records were not common place when this album came out. In a time before downloads but not expensive
compact discs, this was an already legendary band you would read about the
weeklies but seldom hear due to the somewhat prickly content of their material
and disposition. And it all gave them
dark and sinister eminence.
The Future Of War is
the second album by Atari Teenage Riot.
This was the scary sound of Berlin and a futuristic technological scene
that felt terrifying to an outsider/observer.
The wall hadn’t been down a decade yet and this was the cyberpunk
afterbirth.
Alec Empire was not
fucking about. He was royally pushing
the sound of electronic music with Digital Hardcore and whenever one of his
acts or remixes would appear on the John Peel radio show (about the only place
you would hear them) it was always obvious who it was. Empire had a sound that was trademark; his
distinct gabba was genuinely unique.
This is horrible
music.
I procured my copy
from a homosexual. He was the bass
player in a band I was working with and one late Sunday morning when I went
around his with the latest news he was still lounging in bed at which point he
said I could borrow then keep his double vinyl copy of this album. From a person with a temperament to match the
music it resembled quite the rejection (quite the shun).
The record wastes no
time in establishing its mood as the tone of “Get Up While You Can” is the
punishing alarm call of energised individuals shouting the listener into action
and to attention. The repetition of both
the beats and the words drills into the inhabitant’s soul. You are now on board.
Borrowing chunks of
guitar from some uncompromising acts as Slayer and Bad Brains, the samples
clash with some of fastest, hardest beats in the history of smash. At a time when acts would fetishize over
their beats per minute, here Empire harnessed the turn and flipped it on its
head.
While the listener is
still catching their breath from the opener “Fuck All!” follows as another
nihilistic slap as Hanin Elias supplies shredding Riot Grrrl like vocals in
explicit fashion.
The mood never
subsides as song titles such as “Deutschland (Has Gotta Die)” and “Redefine The
Enemy” point fingers while “Sick To Death” and “You Can’t Hold Us Back” express
their direction.
A rare groove is
attained on the stand out track “Destroy 2000 Years Of Culture” as the loops
are bold and a cycle found. Built on a
Slayer, Empire sounds no snottier spitting burnt verse ahead of settling into a
heavy hook and genuine chorus. When he
sings “Love is a wonderful thing” you can’t imagine such sentiments ever being
delivered in more sarcastic fashion. And
by the end his point is made.
As things near an end
they feel resoundingly science fiction in a pre-post-apocalyptic style as first
“Redefine The Enemy” serves as some kind of warning while “Death Star” in its
sinister fuzzed up command/demand and ugly persuasion lives up to its Star Wars
inspired moniker. It doesn’t assault, it
only suggests.
Remaining relentless
to the end closing track “The Future Of War” offers a relentless conclusion
arriving as gabba as anything. And with
that the dust settles and you are no longer listening for your life.
Five years after
release the album found itself placed on an index in Germany which prevented it
from being advertised or sold to minors further cementing its anti
establishment sentiment.
Broken biscuits.
Thesaurus moment:
amelioration.
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