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Alec Empire (Alexander Wilke) was born in 1972 in West Berlin.
At the age of ten he was already a street hero of breakdancing.
Empire formed a punk band called Die Kinder, then started listening to
classical music and finally began to experiment with guitar and electronics.
After German reunification,
the stereotypical teenage rebel (and anarchist) found relief in the
raves of East Berlin's underground scene, far removed from West Germany's
commercial rave scene. He first played live at "Tekknozid" in April 1991.
Atari Teenage Riot was started in 1992 when Carl Crack (MC, from Swaziland),
Alec Empire (programming, shouts, drums and bass) and Hanin Elias
(vocals, of Syrian origins),
decided to revolt against the state of the techno scene and launch a creative
bybrid of industrial, metal and electronica, which they defined
(quote) "digital hardcore".
Their singles and EPs were as uncompromising and ultra-aggresive as their
manifestos:
Hetzjagd AufNazis (Hunt Down The Nazis, 1992),
Not Your Business (Phonogram, 1993), which includes
the epic riff of Atari Teenage Riot,
the childish spasm of Not Your Business (Phonogram, 1993),
the metal-industrial fit of Into The Death,
and Raverbashing,
Kids R United (Phonogram, 1993), with the nihilistic sermons
Kids Are United (Phonogram, 1993) and
Deutschland (has gotta die!) (performed with punk's typical
amateurish and noisy verve, augmented with loops and drum-machine),
the singles Raverbashing (DHR, 1994) and
the propulsive, booming techno of Speed (DHR, 1995), replete with
male rap, girlish female counterpoint and male choir,
were mostly boycotted by labels, stores, radio stations.
For those who had missed the singles,
the lyrics on their first album, Delete Yourself (DHR, 1995),
recorded between october 1993 and february 1994,
sounded like they were coming straight out of 1977 punk-rock.
The album's sound, a very noisy and chaotic mix of guitar samples,
distorted breakbeats, 909, manga samples and shouting, and its political
overtones
(with the declared goal of "not to reform the system, to destroy the system"),
virtually reinvented the mission of dance music in the wake of the triumph of
western-style capitalistic values.
The pounding, unrelenting, visceral call to arms of Start The Riot and
the epileptic orgy of title-track, accompanied by a generous selection
of the previous singles, terrorized discos and radio stations around Germany.
Empire's solo career, in the meantime, was much more prolific, including:
the single Tripmen (Force Inc, 1991), the EPs
Yobot (Force Inc, 1992), SuEcide (Force Inc, 1992), with
Terror Worldwide, Orgasm Addict and
the anthemic SuEcide,
the EP SuEcide Pt 2 (Force Inc, 1992),
the singles Das Duell (Force Inc, 1993) and
Bass Terror (Force Inc, 1993),
the EPs Limited Edition 1 (Force Inc, 1993) and
Limited Edition 2 (Force Inc, 1994),
the EP Pulse Code (Mille Plateaux, 1994), etc.
These early recordings, which will be partially compiled on
Limited Editions 1990-94 (Mille Plateaux, 1994),
show a techno artist still searching for his mission, but
Generation Star Wars (Mille Plateaux, 1994), the first proper
Alec Empire album, displayed an angry young man of techno and hip hop intent
on deconstructing the genres through a manic use of distorted breakbeats.
The deluge continued with the
EPs
The Destroyer (Riot Beats, 1994), containing
The Theme (5:51)
Burn Babylon Burn (3:33)
Destruction (5:00)
E.C.P. (4:51),
The Destroyer Pt 2 (Riot Beats, 1994), with
Identity (5:20) and
Nightmare (6:08),
Berlin Sky (Analogue Records, 1995),
The Wipe Out (Chrome, 1996), with
Two Steps Beyond The Terror,
Jaguar (Force Inc, 1996), with
The Past says and
Interplanetary Disco Rhythm,
and Squeeze The Trigger (Riot Beats, 1996), with
Squeeze The Trigger.
The glacial Low On Ice (Mille Plateaux, 1995), which included the
Kraftwerk-ian single 22:24, was more in the vein of Brian Eno's, Aphex
Twin's and Bill Laswell's ambient music (Metal Dub).
Empire's Les Etoiles Des Filles Mortes (Mille Plateaux, 1996), a fully electronic
work and possibly his masterpiece, showed the influence of electronic composer
Karlheinz Stockhausen and veered towards gothic ambient music.
Atari Teenage Riot's
Live At Brixton Academy (1999) contained a 26-minute electronic
improvisation.
Hypermodern Jazz 2000.5 (Mille Plateaux, 1996), and its slower, relaxed,
self-indulging dance music, employed slightly out-of-time beats to
disorient the listener, a sort of cubistic, psychedelic downtempo
(Chilling Through The Lives, My Funk Is Useless,
Many Bars And No Money).
Low On Ice, Les Etoiles and Hypermodern Jazz were
Empire's "ambient" alter-ego. The sonic terrorist surfaced again on
The Destroyer (DHR, 1996),
reissued in 1998 without four tracks and with three new tracks (the first three),
a milestone in the extreme
jungle sound known as "drill and bass". Empire simply applied the ATR ethics
to individual, artistic, creative art. Part creative rhythms and part
political ego, the album created a personality cult of sorts for the
angry young man of techno.
We All Die and The Peak
ripped apart the tender flesh of dance music
with the shocking and blind hatred of a terrorist.
Empire's guitar playing, inspired by thrash-metal and aggro,
weds maliciously with the electronic bombast of the tracks.
Then ATR released the EP with Sick To Death (DHR, 1997), an inferior
work but boasting the supersonic title-track,
and their second album, The Future of War (DHR, 1997).
Not much had changed, as the disc was still dominated by songs like
The Future of War,
Heatwave, Fuck All and P.R.E.S.S., i.e.
wild, hard-driving punk-rock bacchanals, the rhythm is devastatingly loud
and frantic, Elias still screams like Exene Cervenka on speed and
the others concoct ferocious choirs.
Outside the canon, the heavily distorted Death Star
and, above all,
the hip-hop hurricane Destroy 2000 Years Of Culture, with heavy-metal
riffing and loud drumming, half Public Enemy and half Run DMC,
prove that Empire does not rely on only one trick.
If the result has less impact than the debut, it is only because the debut
also included so many of the early singles.
The best of their repertory was then compiled on
Burn, Berlin, Burn (Grand Royal, 1997), which introduced a much wider
audience to the band's criminal career.
In June of 1997, ATR picked up their fourth member, Nic Endo, a
young Japanese-American who specializes in noises.
She is one of the reasons why 60 Seconds Wipeout (DHR, 1999) wants to
sound even harder that its predecessors.
But the tracks do not strike you as fresh and powerful. Empire and his cohorts
are stuck in the time warp of Western Decay (the anthem) and
Revolution Action (the riff). Guest contributions dilute instead of
compress the energy. The extended mixes display Empire's acquired mastery
at studio production, but are a far cry from his early rage.
In the meantime, Empire also released
We Punk Einheit (Digital Hardcore, 1999), credited to the
Nintendo Teenage Robots and entirely composed from samples of videogame music.
The Geist of Alec Empire (Geist, 1997) is a three-disc set collecting
material from the five LPs recorded for Mille Plateaux between 1990 and 1996:
four tracks from Limited Editions 1990-94,
five from Generation Star Wars, five tracks from
Low On Ice, three tracks from
Les Etoiles Des Filles Mortes,
six tracks from Hypermodern Jazz 2000.5 (1996)
five tracks from compilations, and four unreleased tracks.
Alec Empire and Techno Animal's Kevin Martin
have recorded together
The Curse of the Golden Vampire (DHR, 1998),
a nightmarish experiment in free-jazz electronica.
Alec Empire did not collaborate to the second
Curse of the Golden Vampire album,
Mass Destruction (2003).
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da Walter Consonni)
Alec Empire e` nato a Berlino ovest nel 1972.
A dieci anni era gia` un eroe di strada della breakdance.
Empire mise assieme una punk band denominata Die Kinder, poi si dedico` all'ascolto della musica classica ed infine comincio` a sperimentare con chitarra e strumenti elettronici,
per non parlare delle droghe. Dopo la riunificazione della Germania,
il tipico teenage ribelle (ed anarchico) trovo` conforto nei
raves dell'area underground di Berlino est, molto lontana dall'area rave commerciale
tipica della Germania ovest. Empire suono` dal vivo la prima volta al "Tekknozid"
nell'aprile 1991.
Gli Atari Teenage Riot cominciarono la loro avventura nel 1992 quando Carl Crack (MC, proveniente dallo Swaziland), Alec Empire (programmazione elettronica, urla, percussioni e basso) and Hanin Elias (voce, di origini Siriane), presero la decisione di ribellarsi allo stato in cui versava la scena techno e di varare un ibrido creativo di musica industriale, metal ed electronica, che loro definirono (citazione) "digital hardcore".
I loro singoli ed EPs erano cosŤ privi di compromessi ed ultra-aggressivi come lo erano i
loro manifesti programmatici:
Hetzjagd AufNazis (Hunt Down The Nazis, 1992),
Not Your Business (Phonogram, 1993), che include due classici degli inizi
come Atari Teenage Riot e Raverbashing,
Kids R United (Phonogram, 1993), con gli inni nichilisti
Kids Are United e Deutschland(has gotta die!),
i singoli Raverbashing (DHR, 1994) e
Speed/ Midijunkies (DHR, 1995)
furono per lo pi— boicottati dalle case discografiche, dai negozi, dalle stazioni radio.
Per quelli che si erano persi i singoli, i testi delle canzoni del loro primo album, Delete Yourself (DHR, 1995), sembravano uscire direttamente dal punk-rock inglese del 1977.
Il suono dell'album, un mix caotico e rumoroso di campionamenti chitarristici,
breakbeats distorti, 909, manga samples ed urla, e le sue connotazioni politiche
(con l'intento dichiarato di "non riformare il sistema, distruggere il sistema")
ha di fatto reinventato la missione della dance music nella scia del trionfo dei valori capitalistici di tipo occidentale.
Start The Riot e la title-track, accompagnate da una generosa selezione
dei singoli precedenti, hanno atterrito le discoteche e le stazioni radio nei dintorni della Germania.
La carriera solista di Empire, nel frattempo, era molto piu` prolifica.
I primi singoli, come l'anthemico SuEcide,
che saranno poi raccolti su
Limited Editions 1990-94 (Mille Plateaux, 1994),
mostrano un artista techno ancora alla ricerca di una missione, ma
Generation Star Wars (Mille Plateaux, 1994), il primo vero
album, presenta un giovane arrabbiato del techno e dell'hip hop, intento a
deconstruire i generei attravero un uso maniacale dei breakbeat distorti.
Il glaciale Low On Ice (Mille Plateaux, 1995), che comprende il
singolo 22:24, era piu` nel segno di Brian Eno, e
Les Etoiles Des Filles Mortes (Mille Plateaux, 1996), forse il suo
capolavoro, dimostrava l'influenza del compositore elettronico
Karlheinz Stockhausen e sterzata verso una musica ambientale gotica.
Ma Empire cambio` nuovamente corso con
Hypermodern Jazz 2000.5 (Mille Plateaux, 1996), e la sua lenta musica
ballabile che impiega battiti appena fuori tempo per disorientare
l'ascoltatore
(Walk The Apocalypse, God Told Me How To Kiss).
Quello era circa lo stesso lasso di tempo in cui Alec Empire pubblicava il suo
album solista The Destroyer (DHR, 1996), che ricicla anche materiale
degli EP The Destroyer (Riot Beats, 1994),
The Destroyer Pt 2 (Riot Beats, 1994) e
Death (DHR, 1994),
una pietra miliare per la musica jungle estrema
conosciuta come "drill and bass". Empire ha semplicemente applicato l'etica degli ATR
alla sua creativa arte individuale. In parte per la ritmica creativa ed in parte per
l'ego politicamente impegnato, l'album creo` un culto della personalita`, una
sorta di giovane arrabbiato della techno.
We All Die e The Peak
fanno a pezzi la carne tenera della musica dance
con l'odio scioccante e cieco di un terrorista.
Lo stile chitarristico di Empire, ispirato a thrash-metal ed aggro,
si accoppia maliziosamente con la solennita` elettronica dei brani.
Poi gli ATR hanno realizzato l'EP con Sick To Death (DHR, 1997), un lavoro
minore, ad il loro secondo album, The Future of War (DHR, 1997).
Non molto era cambiato, ed il disco era ancora dominato dagli inni killer
(Get Up While You Can, Fuck All! e soprattutto
Destroy 2000 Years Of Culture) e dai
riffs hardcore (Heatwave). Se il risultato ha meno impatto rispetto al debut-album, e` solo perche' il lavoro precedente includeva anche cosi` tanti
dei primi singoli.
Il meglio del loro repertorio e` stato poi raccolto su
Burn, Berlin, Burn (Grand Royal, 1997), che ha presentato la carriera criminale
della band ad un pubblico piu` vasto.
Nel giugno del 1997 gli ATR hanno acquisito il loro quarto membro, Nic Endo, una
giovane Nippo-Americana specialista in rumorismo.
E' lei una delle ragioni per cui 60 Seconds Wipeout (DHR, 1999) prova a
suonare ancora piu` duro dei suoi predecessori.
Ma i brani non impressionano per freschezza e potenza. Empire ed il suo seguito
sono fermi agli schemi di Western Decay (l'inno) e
Revolution Action (il riff). I contributi dell'ospite diluiscono invece
di
condensare l'energia musicale. Gli estesi missaggi mostrano la maestria acquisita da Empire
nel lavoro di produzione, ma sono molto lontani dal furore degli inizi.
The Geist of Alec Empire (Geist, 1997) e` un'antologia in 3 CD
che raccoglie materiale dai cinque album per la Mille Plateaux.
Alec Empire e Kevin Martin dei Techno Animal
hanno composto insieme
The Curse of the Golden Vampire (DHR, 1998),
un saggio da incubo di free-jazz electronica.
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