Perhaps he realises that 2011 is a pertinent moment for the reactivation of Atari Teenage Riot. As music has fragmented, so it has become more escapist, less engaged, even self-consciously apolitical. At the same time, the Left all across Europe has been unceremoniously booted from power, and now seems split between direct activism and the realisation that it is increasingly hard to win mass support with leftist policies, despite the fact that we’re currently enduring a crisis brought about largely by the super-rich. Atari Teenage Riot offer no answers (save from the motivational power of intense digital noise) but they ask many, many questions. They understand that now there is no one truth from any side, and that you’re better off trusting no one source, no one ideology. Indeed, you might not even agree with all Alec Empire says in the album or the interview he gave the Quietus in the run up to the release of Is This Hyperreal?, but I for one am glad he is saying it. Especially when delivered at such volume.