Atari Teenage Riot was a highly political anarchist and anti-fascist band that was the first to mix punk and techno in a style that later became known as digital hardcore. They gained extensive popularity during the 90s until they split up in 2000. Since then, band founder Alec Empire has been producing albums under his own name, most recently The Golden Foretaste of Heaven, while other band members have been hard at work with other projects as well.

Now, for the first time, a collection of videos by Atari Teenage Riot, Alec Empire, and former ATR band members Hanin Elias and Nic Endo will be available together on a DVD. It’s called Sixteen Years of Video Material and it was released back on Friday, May 30th. They have produced some pretty crazy videos, so I’d recommend it if you like their music.

Of course, if you don’t know what ATR sounds like, you can listen to some of their music on the ATR MySpace page. Don’t forget to check out Alec Empire’s MySpace page while you’re at it. Then you can order both the regular version and limited editions (which comes with a t-shirt, a poster, stickers and more) of the DVD via the Atari Teenage Riot website.

Check out the banned video for Atari Teenage Riot’s song “Revolution Action” below.

Alec Empire, famed leader of the now defunct band Atari Teenage Riot, will release his latest solo album The Golden Foretaste of Heaven in europe this coming Monday, January 21st. (It has already been out in Japan since November 28th, 2007.) And for the first time ever, his music will be under his own label, Eat Your Heart Out. His digital hardcore roots have melded with rock to create a sound that makes the album’s music really difficult to pin down. Should I try to describe it? It sounds like Daft Punk collaborated with some breakbeat-experimental artist, perhaps Venetian Snares. Or imagine if Nine Inch Nails were originally more influenced by punk, instead of industrial, and then followed along the same historical path to one day produce Year Zero with that same kind of depressing futurist motif. That doesn’t make any sense, you say? I told you it wasn’t going to be easy.

Trying to describe the music on The Golden Foretaste of Heaven is like one of those tricky word problems they give students on standardized tests. The answer can’t be A, his style has evolved way beyond punk by now. It could be B, rock, but it’s not rock like his older solo albums were. Maybe C? It’s a little closer to techno perhaps, but I’m still not sure. It’s worded funny. Let’s just pick D, “all of the above.” I hope that’s the right answer. Except this time, they finally tell you after the test is over that there was no correct answer. It was open to your own interpretation, after all. Have a listen. What do you think Alec Empire’s new album sounds like?

There have already been 2 singles released for this album, “Robot L.O.V.E.” which was released back on June 11th, 2007, and “On Fire” which came out more recently on December 7th. Whatever you call this kind of music, I like it, personally. It doesn’t have quite the same effect of insanity that you got with ATR’s “Speed,” but it’s still really good. If you liked those singles or what you heard on Alec’s MySpace page, be sure to check out the “New Man” single which will be coming out sometime soon, as well.

Alec Empire - The Golden Foretaste of Heaven tracklist
01. New Man
02. If You Live Or Die
03. ICE (As If She Could Steal A Piece Of My Glamour)
04. 1000 Eyes
05. Down Satan Down (Dub)
06. On Fire (The Hellish Vortex Sessions)
07. Robot L.O.V.E.
08. Death Trap In 3D
09. Bug On My Windshield
10. No/Why/New York

Video for “On Fire”

Source: youtube.com/watch?v=59sp56-TiZ8