Atari Teenage Riot - 60 Second Wipe Out

Formed in 1992, Berlin hardcore dissenters Atari Teenage Riot were seeking to reconnect music with political radicalism through ever more challenging, experimental hybrids. They seem like a younger Rage Against the Machine or Consolidated - combining various styles of music ranging from hardcore techno to heavy metal and drum 'n' bass. Whatever sound they produce, you can be assured that it is ear bleedingly loud and is full of raw energy and enthusiasm. A friend of mine once described the quartet's (two boys and two girls) sound and appearance as, Buck's Fizz being gang-raped by Ministry. All four ATRs are gorgeous, black-clad musical terrorists who wrench the most awesome breakbeat-metal holocaust sounds from their gear.

60 Second Wipe Out is their third album and was released in 1999. The songs themselves are pretty well formed and written with a political message in most of them (Revolution Action, Western Decay, U.S. Fade Out and Death of a President D.I.Y.!). The aggressive metal-breakbeat rhythms sometimes clash with the politically induced lyrics leading to a confused mix of musical mayhem - which can be difficult to listen to. The best song in my opinion is No Remorse (I Wanna Die) which was in collaboration with the death metal band Slayer, which was also featured in the Spawn OTS. This song combines drum 'n' bass beats with very heavy, aggressive guitars and manic vocals from the Slayer front man Tom Araya. It's loud, fast and extremely cool.

Overall this is a solid album that has progressed and improved from their previous two albums. Atari Teenage Riot are a great band in the same way the The Matrix is a great movie. They are larger than life, cool, loud and dumb - all at the same time. They've combined, collected and mixed up every influence into an overwhelming entertaining whole. The energy and poise of both will utterly sweep you away.

Tracklisting:

1. Revolution Action (Elias/Empire) - 4:09
2. By Any Means Necessary (Empire) - 2:38
3. Western Decay (Empire) - 5:50
4. Atari Teenage Riot II (Empire) - 6:08
5. Ghost Chase (Elias/Empire) - 4:34
6. Too Dead for Me (Elias/Empire) - 4:17
7. U.S. Fade Out (Empire) - 2:52
8. The Virus Has Been Spread (Empire) - 1:15
9. Digital Hardcore (Empire) - 4:11
10. Death of a President D.I.Y.! (Elias/Empire) - 4:43
11. Your Uniform (Does Not Impress Me!) (Empire/Melendez) - 5:48
12. No Success performed by Atari Teenage Riot / D-Story / Freestyle - 3:48
13. Anarchy 999 (Barreto/Elias/Empire/Melendez/Perez/Quiles) - 4:07
14. No Remorse (I Wanna Die) (Araya/Empire/Hanneman/King) - 6:47

***Note***
After that record, the band went on hiatus to allow Crack (one of the band members) to seek psychiatric treatment and deal with declining health caused by long-simmering addictions. Unfortunately the break was not enough and Crack was found dead in his Berlin apartment on September 6, 2001. Since then there has been two more releases by them.

Paw, Could you define what \"awesome breakbeat-metal holocaust sounds \" are?

'holocaust' refers to the systematic mass-scale destruction of human life and is usually associated with the Nazi genocide.

As such, I cannot imagine it being used in anything other than a pejorative sense. (Posted by Jake)

Paw, could you define what 'awesome breakbeat-metal holocaust sounds' are?

The word 'holocaust' means a planned and systematic destruction of human life on a massive scale. It is typically, though not solely, applied to the Nazi genocide of the 1930s and 40s.

Given this, I am at a loss to see how it could be used in anything other than a pejorative and condemnatory sense. (Posted by Jake)

Following sherlock-like investigations

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=holocaust

I can reveal that holocaust can be taken to mean \"destruction by fire\". Quite good discussion there - which does suggest that this usage is rejected these days and because of modern connotations one should use this word quite carefully.

So, my favoured explanation would be either that the sound produced is destructive to the instrument in question, or perhaps \"dangerous to listen to!\" Alternatively, the reviewer could have meant post-holocaust to refer to some sort of style.

Interesting that you picked that out, I would have to agree it's in poor taste. Not necessarily the case that Paw wrote this though - he's been caught out (and deleted) before. So i'd be interested to hear his response. (Posted by Steve)

That's interesting Steve. I appreciate you picking up on it too.

To be fair, I would still claim that 'Holocaust' coming from the Greek means more than just being 'burnt-up'. Even literally, 'holo'-'caust' stresses the totality of destruction referred to.

Now, I don't for a moment suggest that Paw makes an implicitly anti-semetic remark in using the word.

My comment was not an attack on Paw, just what I took to be a misapplicaiton of a word loaded with historical significance.

Firstly, I didn't understand what point he was trying to make by usuing the phrase. Also, unless you are making a very clear point you lay yourself open to accusations of trivialising events and phenomena when you use a phrase like 'holocaust sounds' when reviewing a record.

Again, this makes me sound like I am laying into Paw or making accusations myself - which really is not my intent. However, I do believe - not just on Go Listen, but in life generally - you need to mean what you say and say what you mean. Clarity is all. That's why I asked him to define the phrase 'breakbeat metal holocaust sounds'. Apologies if this sounds pretentious. (Posted by Jake)

The use of the word Holocaust was not meant as an anti-semetic remark when reviewing this album. For me this word means more than the mass murder of ‘Jews by the Nazis’ – although in modern times this word is mainly associated with what happened during WWII. I was trying to describe the feelings and emotions conveyed from listen to ATR’s album. It’s probably a poor description of their music by me – using the phrase breakbeat metal holocaust sounds – my bad for that. I wasn’t intending to offend or trivialise these horrific – but you can’t please everyone.

The sort of “music/sound” I was trying to describe is a cross between death metal and techno music – imagine the music of Deicide or Death combined with the Prodigy. It’s harsh, offensive and extremely loud.
(Posted by paw)

The sort of 'music/sound' I was trying to describe is a cross between death metal and techno music

yeah the phrase did instantly conjure up that sort of sound for me! Good article anyway, sorry to cast doubts on its authorship, but you know. (Posted by )

Cheers for the clarification Paw. I wasn't trying to suggest you were making an implicitly anti-semetic remark at all.

I just didn't understand what you meant by the notion of 'holocaust sounds'. IMHO the idea of 'holocaust sounds' doesn't immediately suggest a marraige of metal and techno, but there you go, that's just me. (Posted by Jake)