When Atari Teenage Riot exploded in mid-90s Berlin, they were spearheading a musical revolution mixing gabba beats, metal samples (check the terrain-flattening Into The Death off their debut 1995), clashing rave and punk, making The Prodigy (or indeed Enter Shikari) sound like lounge music.
Their Digital Hardcore Recordings imprint ushered a manga-esque scene combining Baader Meinhof chic with Blade Runner futurism. Then a member died, ATR split in 2001 and returned almost a decade later.
Still ripping live, their music hasn’t changed much, and the simplistic cyber-anarchism of the shouted slogans is still there. Reset offers the novelty of scattered bits of melody and a more mid-paced stomping. Nowadays they’re taken for a joke by many. A case in point is single Modern Liars. The music video, based on Tekken-style gaming, is just juvenile. But this is exactly what ATR, whether they intend to or not, are good for in the here and now: radical music for 10-year-olds that their parents can enjoy. Atari Teenage Riot – recommended educational gabba for the whole family.
Via Digital Hardcore Recordings
