Album Review: Atari Teenage Riot – Is This Hyperreal?
3 min read
German digital hardcore collective Atari Teenage Riot have just ended a successful tour of the UK in the lead up to new record Is This Hyperreal? Including a gig at London’s Islington Academy that was hailed one of the bands most electrifying performances to date the band have been busy putting the finishing touches on the new collection for its Monday release and we got to hear a copy of the new record early to see what the band have come up with 12 years after their last offering.
Is This Hyperreal? is the bands fourth studio release and follows the success of 1999’s 60 Second Wipeout. Fans were delighted in 2010 when it was confirmed that the band, which began in 1992 and disbanded in 2000, would be reuniting for a European tour with hints at a new record. Expectations have understandably been running high since word got out about a new record, after all it’s one that has been twelve years in the making meaning fans of the sonic outfit have had to be very patient in terms of hearing new material from Atari Teenage Riot.
With technology moving forward considerably since the bands last release Is This Hyperreal? provides us with a collection that it bursting at the seams with electronic mania and energy. The bands sound has therefore matured and we are promised something very special with the new album.
Pressing play on the collection its full steam ahead as Activate lights the wick on Is This Hyperreal? and conjures up images of underground clubs full of glow stick wielding super ravers. Momentum is the key to the opening number where its either keep up or get out of the kitchen while the following hypnotic welcoming of Blood In My Eyes offers us a little bit of tame with a sweetly spoken female narration over some spacey instrumentation and a meaty melody.
Further down the record Codebreaker’s forceful vocals provided by front man Alec Empire give a protesting quality to the track while Shadow Identity dabbles in the mainstream electronic pool with a complimenting, almost Chemical Brothers reminiscent dream sequence providing the tracks syrupy, central filling.
The closing Collapse of History stands out as a notable number on the record with its video game effect intro, its wailing anthemic vocal swaying and gives a calm to the storm that is Is This Hyperreal? leading us to the lengthy distorted endings of the bands latest catalogue addition.
Through its entirety Is This Hyperreal? is concentrated energy with each of the inclusions on the record follow a template of frenzy and hype. Each of the ten tracks on the album stand strong and provide a welcome return for one of Europe’s leading hardcore outfits.
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