Atari Teenage Riot - 1999 60 Second Wipe Out

Band : Atari Teenage Riot

Album : 60 Second Wipe Out

Release Year : 1999

Genre : Digital Hardcore | Noise | Experimental

Tracklist :

 1. Revolution Action
2. By Any Means Necessary
3. Western Decay
4. Atari Teenage Riot II
5. Ghostchase
6. Too Dead For Me
7. US Fade Out
8. The Virus Has Been Spread
9. Digital Hardcore
10. Death Of A President D.I.Y.!
11. Your Uniform (Does Not Impress Me!)
12. No Success
13. Anarchy 999

Atari Teenage Riot is a German digital hardcore group formed in Berlin in 1992. Highly political, they fused left-wing anarchist anti-fascist views with punk vocals and the newly emerging techno sound that was called digital hardcore, which is a term Alec Empire later used in the name of his record company.

While I'm not naive enough to think Atari Teenage Riot's 60 Second Wipeout is just "a bunch of noise", I'm not sold that it's the "music of the future" either (gimme a break). And for all the talk of subversion, the blender beeps, jungle beats and scratches of "underground techno" have proven to be about as revolutionary as diet celery. I'm baffled by the hype these types of groups generate; diarrhetic techno is hardly a cutting edge idea, and while the press punctuates bold adjective like "heavy", "hardcore", my brain conjures up "redundant" and "inane". Call me difficult: the cartoonish mentality of modern commercial techno requires one to have firmly in place the Irony Sunglasses, Irony Earphones, and really stupid shoes. However, seeing as how commercial techno is exactly what ATR are not, 60 Second Wipeout unexpectedly comes off with a distinct air of creativity, brains and authority - this is not garbage you'll find on some lame throb mix. Indeed, I know many a sophisticated music fans who are enamored with this group, people that would normally not touch this braindead druggy genre with lead gloves. And I found myself liking it: the frantic punkish anarchy of "Too Dead For Me" and "Revolution Action" are musically backward and sonically inverted, but none of these tracks are discombobulated enough to completely slam the door on casual enjoyment. It's curious to hear what they can throw in the mix and make work. As a result, the music falls somewhere between stock & store techno and total white noise, but the results are rarely short of interesting.

 

 

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