VARIOUS ARTISTS The Virus Has Been Spread : A Tribute To Atari Teenage Riot CD
D-Trash (Canada)
 

Oh man, how this takes us back. Canadian label D-Trash is definitely the new DHR, spawning a whole new scene of breakcore bruisers and digital hardcore crushers. Admittedly they owe a huge debt to Alec Empire, Atari Teenage Riot and that breakcore/metal hybrid sound those folks practically created. So here it is, years after the demise of ATR, Empire has moved on, DHR seems to have disappered, so what better time to remind folks how amazing that shit sounded then, and brutal and heavy and badass it still sounds today. So here's the whole D-Trash roster, each tackling a classic Atari Teenage Riot track, all our favorites for sure, "Start The Riot", "Into The Death", "Delete Yourself", "The Future Of War"Š Most of the bands here do it pretty straight, if anything just making the guitars crunchier and heavier, the beats more distorted and blown out, but still the tracks are classic, and sound enough like the originals that from note one, we're already banging our heads wildly. A few folks mix it up, Untitus (whose reissued full length is listed elsewhere on this list) slows things down, unfurling a thick buzzing backdrop, letting the drums lurch in a grinding anti-funk, the vocals all sultry and slurred. Schizoid (who also has a full length reissue on this list) turns his ATR track into some howling ultradistorted blast of blackened breakcore, the drums a chaotic blur, the vocals a hateful howl, so intense and furious, so much so that it almost makes the original sound tame. Other highlights include the robotic electro of Evestus, the old school (digital) hardcore punk rock of DHC Meinhof, the skittery metallized jungle of CTRLer, the playful video game gabber of 64RevoltŠ It's all pretty amazing, we of course lean toward the heavier more brutal blasts of digital hardcore, but goddamn, this all still sounds so great. We've been going pretty nuts, immersing ourselves in all this amazing D-Trash stuff, it's like a nonstop breakcore dance party around here and we STILL can't get enough. 
 

SCHIZOID All Things Are Connected CD
D-Trash
 

Alec Empire's DHR label gave us a sample of what the US had to offer as far as REAL underground digital hardcore on the triple cd comp 'Don't Fuck With Us' released a while back. And in keeping with their campaign of support for the US DHR underground, they've picked up and reissued two of our favorite bands form the comp, Unitus and Schizoid, both originally released on the awesome D-Trash label. Here's what we had to say about this record the first time around: Schizoid was responsible for our favorite tracks on the massive (and massively good) 'Don't Fuck With Us' 3 cd compilation of North American digital hardcore compiled by the 'expert' on such things, Mr. Alec Empire. We described Schizoid as "Burzum goes DHR" and that's still pretty right on. But now we have a whole disc, so there's much more variation and much more mayhem! Super distorted, heavily effected, totally evil vocals over dense electronic soundscapes, with chopped up metal guitars, pounding hardcore/gabber/drill'n'bass rhythms. Way more intense and aggressive than almost anything on DHR, and certainly more fucked up and pummelling than almost any electronic music we've heard lately, without falling into the boring, repetitive sameness of most gabber/digital hardcore. Super varied, with full on speed metal gabber, lots of spaced out ambient breaks, electronic drones, and some seriously damaged mid tempo primitive-black-metal-electronica. This is definitely some of the best (and most brutal) electronica to come our way since we first heard 'The Destroyer'. For fans of DHR, The Berserker, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Pig Destroyer, Venetian Snares, Atomsmasher, Burzum, Darkthrone and all that evil stuff.
 

UNITUS Cross Contamination CD
D-Trash
 

Everyone here digs the shit out breakcore. Whether it's DJ Scud, Christoph De Babalon, all that DHR digital hardcore stuff back in the day. Just like jungle, it was a sound we never got tired of, but all the folks we loved making that sort of music seemed to just sort of drop off the map. DHR folded, or at least is keeping such a low profile we can't get their records, other Breakcore folks have moved onto different sounds. But oh how we long for those super distorted beats, those grim sprawling soundscapes, the darker and more ominous the better. Well, lucky for us it seems that Canadian label D-Trash has stuck to their breakcore guns, keeping the sound and spirit alive, even releasing a brand new compilation, a tribute to Atari Teenage Riot (reviewed elsewhere on this list). It helps that the man behind D-Trash is none other than Schizoid, our favorite digital hardcore black metal breakcore sound manipulator for sure. Way back when, we reviewed this disc by a group (or person) called Unitus, it totally destroyed us then, and has now been reissued and sounds just as fantastic now. We first heard Unitus on the amazing DHR 'Don't Fuck With Us' compilation years and years ago. And when we finally got this full length it was everything we had hoped it would be. Killer breakbeats over thick distorted guitars and viscous buzzing drones. Unitus is definitely very beat heavy and was right at home on DHR, but unlike a lot of that stuff, the beats are laid down in a thick, dark miasma of digital crunch and ambient drones and rumbles. Making for an almost dreamy, definitely droney, hypnotic drum and bass workout with stretches of ambient whir, reminding us quite a bit of the seminal Third Eye Foundation 12" 'Semtex'. Nice thick analog sounding dirgescapes, the drone on and on and on with simple, skittery beats or grinding crunchy rhythms woven throughout. Really fucking great! Even still. This doesn't sound dated at all, and in fact if anything, it puts to shame much of the electronic music coming out now. 

back