herdivineshadow from tumblr
Alec Empire (by 930ClubDC)
This man is totally adorable. I don’t care that I was deaf for two hours after the first time I saw him live. I can’t help it – he doesn’t have an ipod, he referred to the ATR “reunion” as like a “software update” and totally superficially, he is really, really cute.
In other news, I’ve only just realised that I first saw Alec Empire live 10 years ago. O_o
I talk to young DJs now, and they say, “Oh, Berlin back then, what was it like?” And it’s hard to explain the difference in energy. Berlin is missing a place that’s not just hip for a certain amount of time, but a place where something new or creative happens, a place where 20 artists or DJs get together and something starts to happen and they create something important for years to come. I’m not cynical about it – it happened in the 1990s and I think it can happen again in Berlin. But Berlin’s a bit of a black hole right now. Some of it has to do with tourism – a lot of the entertainment nightlife runs on tourists who come to Berlin. It keeps people doing the same sort of thing over and over again. You can’t confront that kind of crowd. I mean you can, but you don’t want to get that reputation of a place not to go to when you go to Berlin. It’s a trap.
(via Alec Empire Uncut: The complete Atari Teenage Riot Interview | Features and Interviews | Artrocker)
The whole album was programmed on an old Atari ST1040 computer with 2MB ram – where did you get this piece of kit from and why has it become so iconic to your sound?
Alec: Back in the day this was the Mac…everybody made music with it. There is something about its timing and fast attack when it’s triggering the sounds, that no other computer has. You just approach music in a certain way when you program on it. When I was still in school, I worked this shitty warehouse job during the holidays, so I was able to buy this thing. It’s rare these days, and it’s hard to repair them. We have about 15 Ataris which are in use…then a couple that we use when we tour. The Gorrillaz album done on the iPad? That is no challenge, because the iPad is a limited device but in comparison a super computer…to do what we do on a computer with 2MB ram, well you must be Einstein to figure this one out these days…haha…not saying that I’m that smart…but I’m getting there…slowly…haha….
So I’m reading this interview with Alec Empire of Atari Teenage Riot, and he’s articulate, challenging, intelligent and has fascinating ideas and all I can think is “Man, this guy is super attractive.”
If he was a total nerd about something like computers or Star Trek, he would be irresistible to me.
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.