Tag: atari teenage riot

Atari Teenage Riot – entrevista @ Alive (by GeracaoCCascais)

SO MANY THINGS.

  1. subjective reality/personal reality – this is something that I studied a bit at university, doing computer science, artificial intelligence and virtual reality. SO fascinating to think about
  2. personal responsibility – I am all for MANNING UP AND DOING IT YOURSELF. If something needs doing, then I will do it. I will not be waiting for some authority figure to deal with it or give me permission to sort it out.
  3. Hidden codes/language
  4. lack of timeline/context in access to music/simultaneous access to  all of music old and new – I remember 10/15 years ago being the only person into Ben Folds Five or AFI or whoever and NO ONE around me being into any of the same bands. Partly because I could hear one random song on the radio or on tv and be able to remember that enough to try and search out the rest of the band’s music and being very much into music press when no one else I knew was. Now? I hear a song, I figure out who it is, search it down on hypemachine or youtube or soundcloud or whatever, I tweet it to EVERYONE and then I’ll get at least one person who likes it
  5. PORTUGAL – I <3 Portugal. My auntie lives there and she cooks the only omelette I will eat. She’s 80 and can’t drive but she goes grocery shopping for “old” people and carries the bags on the bus and walks up hilly roads to deliver it. She is ACES
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

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

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

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.

Tim Mohr: The Music and Mayhem of Atari Teenage Riot: An Interview with Alec Empire (Plus Free MP3!)

(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.

atari-teenage-riot:

ATARI TEENAGE RIOT HAS NOW CHANGED ITS NAME INTO : ATARI TINY RIOT 

DOWNLOAD HERE AND TERRORIZE EVERYONE AROUND YOU, LET YOUR IPHONE DEVICE RECORD THE MADNESS AND DIRECTLY UPLOAD TO THE MOST INSANE YOUTUBE CHANNEL THERE IS: ATARI TINY RIOT IS A COLLAB BETWEEN JAPANESE TINY RIOT PROGRAMMERS AND THE BAND ATARI TEENAGE RIOT , YOU MOTHERF***ERS

 I know Atari Teenage Riot are all noisy and relevant and political and that. I know this. But dammit. This is really really cute.

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.

The Quietus | Features | A Quietus Interview | The Age Of Empire: An Atari Teenage Riot Interview