Atari Teenage Riot - Is This Hyperreal? download mp3 flac

Like Christopher_Jion, I grew up on ATR. They're the reason I like 90% of the music I like now, and DHR was a major inspiration for my own music. This album is an abomination, a hollow shell of blandness and mediocrity. Alec is obviously trying to appeal to the Dim Mak/dance/hipster crowd. Fucking weak.

As a huge ATR/DHR fan who's stayed true to the bone since 1996, I feel I can say this about a band I love to death:
*ahem* ATR should be fucking ASHAMED of this turd. This is NOT digital hardcore, this is electropunk. Not Rugged, too clean, too polished, too slick, no surprises, no hooks, not memorable. It doesn't sound organic at all. Hard breaks are absent here. Even though real gear was used, it still kind of sounds like Fruity Loops on an iPhone to me. It really sounds like a band imitating ATR, but not quite accomplishing it.
I think a major problem with this album is that there are no sampled guitar loops or weird little sounds adding texture in the mid-range, not to mention the missing sampled breakbeats and movie samples! I mean, listen to all the weird sounds happening in "Not Your Business" or "Sick To Death" ...they add so much heart, individuality, & energy to the tracks. And the guitar parts in this new album were played FOR the track and that ended up really boring and predictable.

Now, I'm not saying ATR has to copy the old albums at all, they should push things forward as always, but it was a perfect way of making music and it would've worked forever. ...and this album is gigantic leaps backwards.
They say they were going back to the original ATR sound with this album, but this stuff sounds nothing like "Children Of The New Breed", "Anarchy In The Suburbs Of Berlin", "Speed", or "Crash Groove". As those tracks were fun, catchy, and energetic.
And there is soooo much sloganeering here, way too much, gets on the fucking nerves. They always had some going on of course, but it was honest and really passionate. This just feels really written out. And they seem so much more about their image than ever before. So much posing and posturing. THEY HOLD COMPETITIONS ON FACEBOOK FOR PERFUME NOW!

Also, the cover art. WTF, guys? Boring. Why not use Hell & Virus? If you're gonna use the same machines to make the music, why not stick to your visual aesthetic as well? (oh yeah! because fanboys think Nic is "OMG SOOOO HOT!!!!" and ATR now kowtows to the idiots buying this turd of an album.) Also, Alec's albums and singles got a lot less good once his face/their faces were on every single one. (the exceptions being The Destroyer & Alec vs Elvis).

Maybe they set the bar too high with the first few albums (1995 & The Future Of War are 100% perfect albums).
That time and place and energy can never be replicated (and maybe they shouldn't try to).
But this one really kind of feels like a forced album. They still put on a hell of a live show though, so if you want to hear some of the old tracks, go see them live. ...just cross your fingers they don't play any of these shitty new tracks.

We live in a world where electronic music is doing all kinds of insane stuff, kids are pushing it so hard into weird and intense places and doing so much with it. ATR was always light years ahead of the pack, but now it seems they're far behind it.
...and it's not like I'm some jerk who doesn't like new music or when bands sound a bit different as their career progresses. Not at all. I like when new ground is conquered (when it's done well of course). But this is just a really weak album from a band who used to make the most energetic and solid albums humanly possible.

sidenote:
Death Grips - Exmilitary. The raw aggression and energy of that album beats this new version of ATR into a pile of wimpy bones, leather pants, & eyeliner crying on the floor. If I was ATR I'd be embarrassed to call Is This Hyperreal "hard" and "heavy" when things like that exist.
ATR, you are a joke.