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VARIOUS ARTISTS "The Virus Has Been Spread" CD has got some good reviews so far, and here they all are in one place. Click
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purchase the CD.
Brutalism Magazine
(www.brutalism.com)
"Here we got a Tribute release for the cult Digital/Electronic/Hardcore band Atari Teenage Riot from Germany, which is a cult band in their scene. This tribute CD is released by the Canadian based label D-Trash Records.
This Tribute CD contains 16 varied cover versions performed by various bands which have incorporated their musical touches during the making of these songs.
The release starts with the track performed by Rabbit Junk starting with a humoristic speech which suddenly skips into hysteric brutal Industrialized Cyber Hardcore. The song is very hysteric and extreme. Just imagine a punch straight to your face, this is what Rabbit Junk is all about. Next is the song by Howard Roark. The song is performed quite in vein of the original one, with the exception of the harsh breakbeat drumming and the deep beefy fuzzy bass guitar sound plus other extreme sounds, making this song quite hyper like don’t know what! After that we have Zymotic which an interesting combination of Industrial Cyber Hardcore Thrash. On one hand they remind me quite of old Metallica (thanks to these Thrash structures performed with downtuned guitars). The rest is all Electronics followed by extreme Punk vocals.
Unitus presented their track which can be simply described as a kind of Psychadelic Funeral Doom with funky distorted drum machine, light frequency textures, female speeches and few hints of melodies. Quite an interesting blend! The next song by Ctrler represents a hyper hysteric world through their mix of various funky break beats patterns, light Trip-Hop elements, guitars and the typical Punk vocals. The track is quite plain but sounds so varied thanks to their experimentation in the productions phase (volumes, eq’s and more). Hansel, on the other hand sounds like a mix of Cyber, Orchestra and Breakbeats. At first it reminded me of some sort of RnB but the actual performance is rather a mix of Classical Orchestra (nope..they’re not performed synthetic sounds), breakbeats, synth music and some kinda RnB. Very very unusual! The track by 64revolt is one of my favourites! A mix of Melodic Harsh EBM and Techno with various style of singing from the typical Hardcore to some plain girly singing which sounds a bit ‘off key’, but it suits quite well! The song is straight forward but it gives you enough party energy. Quite good for partying around… Nocore presented a grimy minimal sound textures of electronic frequencies, dark melodies, deep guitars, hyper blasting drumming accompanied by some kinda hysteric Black Metal vocal styling. This is perhaps the only gloomy song in the whole Tribute album.
DHC Meinhof on the other hand performs straight Cyber Punk with a good use of guitars. The song is very straight forward but well performed! Following this track, The Secret Life of Teenage Girls came out with an interesting mix of Techno/Industrial/Breakbeat with hysterical (at times lo-fi) screams and muffled guitars. The song structure is quite Metal with the exception of the electronic side. This is another good straight forward track. Phallus Uber Alles came out with a killing variation of beefy fuzzy sounds, Cyber Breakbeat/Punk, and sampling here and there. Although this song can be also perceived as quite straight forward, the band didn’t limit themselves in experimenting here and there with sound mixing. Evestus on the other hand came out with an interesting funky mix of complex funky drum’n’bass, distant synths and melodic electro accompanied by pianos and anarchist vocal passages. Yes, another interesting song, but I shouldn’t exclude the unusual performance by the next band Hercklekot which presented a hyper mix of digital extreme Punk meeting digital tribalism. In this song, it can be noted that vocals play a major role, and as a matter of fact, there is a kind of “choir” consisting of anarchist harsh voices. Next is Cynaotic which presented an extreme harsh Hardcore/Industrial/Breakbeat with extreme distorted voices and occasional growls. The tracks has a lack of bass which is then compensated during the ending part…filled with a mix of deep sounds and brutalized electronic frequencies. The Phoeron came out with an Industrial/Sci-Fi/Ambient song accompanied by speeches, synthetic distorted guitars and deep distorted drum hits here and there.
Finally the last song performed by Schizoid, and I think the moniker is also reflected in the song they chose to perform. They presented a badly produced mix of Industrial Cyber Grind-core filled with Death Metal blast beats through the use of a drum machine. The rest, hysteric distorted screams (typical of Grind-core) are nevertheless present! It may sound like it was recorded in a garage but it is not! In this genre, audio/mixing experimentation is always a must to have as it boosts the quality of the song.
That’s it! For those who never listened to Atari Teenage Riot, this very Tribute is quite a good example to introduce you that band, which was formed back in 1992 in Berlin, Germany. Recommended!
RegenMag Magazine
(www.regenmag.com)
"Posted: Friday, June 01, 2007
Staying true to the original anarchist spirit of Atari Teenage Riot, D-Trash presents a compilation of some abrasive tributes sure to send you into a raging frenzy.
Atari Teenage Riot are one of those groups that have had a profound effect on the underground music scene as the purveyors of what is now known as digital hardcore, a combination of the more danceable forms of electronic music with the hardcore energy of punk music, while making a few political statements along the way. The band ended prematurely in 2000 with the suicide of band member Carl Crack, and while the remaining members continue today with their own brands of musical chaos, a void has been left in the scene since their untimely demise. Canada's D-Trash Records are one of the burgeoning labels in the modern underground that has held true to ATR's legacy, releasing a variety of bands that have taken the digital hardcore aesthetic to their own conclusions. With The Virus Has Been Spread, D-Trash presents a tribute compilation that is sure to remind many of the initial power and shock of Atari Teenage Riot.
Appropriately, Rabbit Junk kicks things off with "Start the Riot," a faithful version of one of ATR's signature hits, yet infusing plenty of their own raucous energy into the track, even going so far as to replace the original's anime samples with their own vocal performances. The same can be said for Cyanotic's take on "Your Uniform (Does Not Impress Me)," making the track their own with a blistering array of pounding breakbeats and vitriolic vocals, ending in an almost ear-shattering collage of glitch-laden madness. Interestingly, some of the tracks sample portions of the originals, such as on Ctrler's "Deutchland (Has Gotta Die)" and Evestus' "Delete Yourself," although both still manage to keep their interpretations from sounding like carbon copies. This is also true of DHC Meinhof's version of "Revolution Action," which even manages to speed the song up, which hardly seemed possible given the thrash-like attack of the original. In contrast, the version of "Death Star" by Unitus slows the already slow song into menacing dirge of noisy ambient backdrops and distorted drumbeats, with Devilla's vocals sucking the listener in like a black widow spider. 64Revolt are notable for their take on "You Can't Hold Us Back" as the track takes an almost new wave approach, but with enough idiosyncrasies to vaguely recall the original, while "Speed" by The Secret Life of Teenage Girls is almost completely faithful to the original if not for taking some liberties with the chorus, as well as the grating black metal-esque vocals.
As tribute compilations go, credit must be given to the artists on The Virus Has Been Spread. Even on tracks like Hercklekot's "Fuck All!" and Zymotic's "Into the Death," both of which are near perfect note-for-note covers, every artist on this CD manages to present their own sound and style to the listener while staying true to the original spirit of Atari Teenage Riot; a rather difficult task for any tribute. As label head Schizoid states in the liners, "Riot sounds still will produce riots;" no statement could be truer, and with his version of "The Future of War" ending the CD on a gut-wrenchingly abrasive note, The Virus Has Been Spread will surely produce the same level of excitement, shock, and anarchist rage as the original Atari Teenage Riot."
Rock Sound
Magazine
(www.rock-sound.net)
Graveconcerns
EZine
(www.graveconcernsezine.com)
"The trouble with making a tribute album is that it’s often like making another Star Wars movie. You have to have some good people on board, because, usually, if you are doing a tribute album, you are treading on sacred ground. Certainly that is the case with "The Virus Been Has Spread," a tribute to Atari Teenage Riot. It’s hard to match Atari Teenage Riot for sheer intensity, and in order for this tribute to stand up, it’s going to require some pretty enterprising minds. Atari Teenage Riot emerged in the newly reunited Germany in 1992, playing what the band referred to as "digital hardcore" a nasty revolt against the commercial German techno scene. Also, intensly political, ATR vowed "not to reform the system, but to destroy the system." So, ATR went on to release some of the noisiest, most uncompromising music we have ever had the pleasure of our collective ears bleeding to. Doing an ATR tribute, there’s going to be some noisy, nasty examples, none to easy to follow. Fortunately, "The Virus Has Been Spread" delivers: there’s something here both for the uninitiated, who may be approaching Atari Teenage Riot’s music for the first time, and for the hard-core fan of ATR. For this reviwer, the albums looses a little bit of it’s steam towards the middle, but it bookended by Rabbit Junk’s blistering take on ATR classic "Start The Riot" and (contemporary luminaries of noise themselves) Schizoid’s version of "The Future of War." The best songs on this disk manage to stay true to Atari Teenage Riot’s music, while adding a little modern flourish, be it turn-tables, samples, or whatever. One of the strengths of this disk is that it seems to have conjoured up the lesser known and unknown acts from the genre, who in turn demonstrate they are the right bands to carry the flag for ATR. This is a good jolt to anybody that’s a little disturbed about how over-produced and safe a lot of EBM and Industrial has gotten. -Robert Eaton
Chain DLK Magazine
(www.chaindlk.com)
"Carl Crack, Nic Endo, Hanin Elias and Alec Empire, better known as the German DIY-spirited multi-national multi-gender band Atari Teenage Riot, have pretty much created the genre most commonly referred to as digital hardcore, and, although labeling their niche genre can still turn out to be increasingly difficult and unpopular, their legacy of ultra-politicized heavily-distorted electronic/d'n'b punk/HC carries on throughout the decades. Proof of this is that six years after ATR's end, the genre is still alive and kicking (literally!) and 16 bands converged in 2007 to put this tribute CD together under the one label that probably best represents the movement, the genre and the attitude itself: Canadian D-Trash records. Rabbit Junk, Howard Roark, Zymotic, Unitus, Ctrler, Hansel, 64 Revolt, Nocore, DHC Meinhof, The Secret Life of Teenage Girls, Phallus Uber Alles, Evestus, Hercklekot, Cyanotic, The Phoeron and of course Schizoid crowd the line-up of "The Virus Has Spread" and will hopefully contribute to the wide-spreading of the ATR virus of knowledge and anger. I applaud the tribute and the spirit behind it. ATR were so ahead of time with their anthems that hopefully people will start listening to ATR's lyrics sometimes soon and start fighting back already... The time to fight has been right for a while!
Review by: Marc Urselli-Schaerer [ marc {dot} urselli {at} chaindlk {dot} com ]
Virus-Mag (www.virus-mag.com)
"D-Trash Records finally decided to release an Atari Teenage Riot tribute, something they've been contemplating, according to the press release, since the label's inception.
And with most success stories, timing is always crucial, so crucial, in fact, that the board of trustees down at D-Trash, while puffing frantically on Cuban cigars and slamming down shots of Dewars down at the corporate headquarters' main conference room, nearly came to blows. But after some finger pointing and much name calling, they eventually calmed down and decided that the time for an ATR tribute CD was right now.
Nevermind the politically correctos, or the thought police, or the DJs playing emo on the radio, what the world needs more than anything right now is some ATR, recreated anew by mostly obscure bands for a new generation of fans and foes.
And why is this techno breakbeat punkassnoise, this digital hardcore, needed right now, you ask? Why the hell not! I think a dose of inappropriate music for these inappropriate times is a more than welcomed prescription.
There are few surprises on this disc, mostly faithful renditions in spirit at the very least, and some inspired interpretations, most notably Hansel's version of "Ghostchase", which could have easily also been entitled "A Concise Guide To Listening To ATR Whilst Trapped At A Chamber Music Concert With Your New Girlfriend".
Fans of ATR will like this CD, and those interested in checking out a band that bridged so many genres back in the day might be better off with the band's original material, although the material presented on this album is nearly as good.Michael Casano, 01 Jun 2007
Goth-Tronic (www.gothtronic.com)
"At the beginning of the 1990's, Carl Crack, Hanin Elias and Alec Empire started the noise collective Atari Teenage Riot (ATR) in Berlin. The music they make they themselves describe as Digital Hardcore and can best be explained as a combination of noise, techno and punk. In 1993 they release “Delete Yourself!”. In 1997 Nic Endo joins the band and they release the albums “The Future Of War” (1997) and “60 Seconds Wipe-Out” (1999). (The entire discography also knows two compilation album “Burn, Berlin, Burn” (1997) and “Atari Teenage Riot 1992-2000” (2006), two live albums “Live in Philadelphia – Dec. 97” (1997), “Live at Brixton Academy” (1999) and a rarities compilation “Redefine The Enemy” (2002)).
In 2000 the band splits up. Alec Empire keeps making noise as a solo artist. Nic Endo helps him with his live shows and production of the albums. Hanin Elias also continues making music and surprisingly I heard her on a release of The Vanishing not so long ago. In 2001 Carl Crack dies after a long struggle with drug addiction.
D-Trash now releases a strong tribute album, made with much respect for ATR. All contributors remain pretty close to the originals. Just now and then there is presented even more noise and hardcore: in 2007 the acts have more noisemaking instruments and programs at their disposal than in 1993.
From all the official three albums of ATR songs are represented, with just a bit more tracks from “60 Second Wipe-Out” than from “Delete Yourself!” and “Future Of War”. A nice surprise is that also 'No Remorse (I Wanna Die)' is present on this tribute. The original version is a collaboration between ATR and Slayer, from the soundtrack of “Spawn”. Howard Roark has made a good version. Some other interesting contributions are Rabbit Junk, Zymotic, Ctrler, The Secret Life Of Teenage Girls and Evestus (with a interesting version of the classic 'Delete Yourself').
But actually there are no bad contributions to this album. The high quality of the separate songs, the varied choice from the works of ATR and the respect for the Digital Hardcore masters that is very apparent in every track, makes this an interesting and convincing tribute. A recommendation, and not just for ATR-fans!.
Heathenharvest.com (www.heathenharvest.com)
Sometime back in the early to mid nineties, I remember a
good friend introducing me to the musical assault that is Atari Teenage
Riot and how I was taken aback at the sheer ferocity of their attack. It
was like nothing I’d ever heard up to that point, the sonic equivalent
of being battered around the head with a studded steel baseball bat.
Moreover, these people were angry politicised young things, pointing
accusatory fingers at government, institutions and global society and
challenging those who had the power to do so to change the status quo
for the better. The world was a mess then; it’s even more so now,
heading as we are for a post-Bush era where the world will be left a
seemingly more dangerous place, in terms of both global security and
economics, than it was when ATR were at their rampaging best.
Unfortunately, the juggernaut of Teutonic hatred and progenitors of
digital hardcore self-imploded in 2001 and consequently left something
of a vacuum in the wake of their untimely demise. Now, six years later,
Canadian extreme electronic noise label D-Trash
has seen fit to unleash a tribute album to this innovative German
outfit, a reminder perhaps that we need a band of similar forthrightness
and venom to raise the call to arms once more.
As is to be expected, it’s full of noise, grind, bombast and furious
beats, as well as being something of a mixed bag quality- and
interpretation-wise, with most of the bands opting to more or less
emulate the trademark machine-gun delivery perfected by ATR. However
even here, there are some who have decided to take a different tack,
even going so far as to slow things down like Unitus’ slow doom bump ‘n’
grind monster ‘Death Star’ and Hansel’s orchestral & hardcore
reinterpretation of ‘Ghostchase’ – but
despite these radical changes both songs have lost none of the raw power
or sheer violence of the originals. The Swedish 64Revolt trio of Emil,
Patrick and Kängan provide us with a punk-techno-flavoured ‘You Can’t
Hold us Back’ while noCore throw in a bit of experimental industrial in
the shape of ‘U.S. Fade Out’. DHC Meinhof, meanwhile, wish to steer us
into hardcore punk territory with the joyfully straight-ahead
pile-driving cover of ‘Revolution Action’; however, most of the rest
call upon breakbeat, industrial and drum ‘n’ bass stylings for their
stabs at honouring those who laid the foundations and paved the way.
I enjoyed about half the tracks on this album, some of which I have
outlined above; the rest just seemed to blur into one after a while and
seemed to be too close to the originals. That of course is the danger of
tribute albums, but then in all fairness I would have
been surprised had I liked all the
tracks. It’s obvious though that each of the artists here were
influenced to one degree or another by Atari Teenage Riot, in terms of
aesthetics and style if not in political leanings. ATR were a breath of
fresh air in the staleness of the nineties and blew many a music fan’s
cobwebs away; even today I would say that what they created can still
stand up to the best of them. First and foremost though, they gave us
digital hardcore and if not for them the bands on this album would never
have come into being; in that sense then it is only right they pay
tribute to the pioneers.
Industrial.org
(www.industrial.org)
To be honest, I've always been a bit dubious as to the real point of tribute albums, and cover albums in general. Sure, throwing in a cover song or two on an album or live set can add a bit of spice to things occasionally, but to do a whole album of such always struck me as a bit lame and gimmicky. So when D-trash sent this Atari Teenage Riot tribute disc my way, I was pretty skeptical about it. But when I actually got off my ass and listened to the cd, I found that I liked it a lot more than I thought it would.
There are 16 tracks total on "The virus has been spread", with the total amount of time spent rounding off to just short of an hour. About half of the bands featured here are familiar faces, and the other half are totally new to my ears. Most all of the acts dish out rather solid renditions of their chosen ATR song, with only one or so tracks out of the whole bunch that I think could have been scrapped. My fave cuts on the disc are probably "No Remorse (I wanna die)" by Howard Roark (which, if you didn't know, is a reference to an Ayn Rand character), "Fuck All!!!" by Hercklekot, "Your uniform does not impress me" by personal faves Cyanotic , and lastly but not leastly, the title track, performed by The Phoeron. Hansel's rendition of "Ghostchase" is pretty cool too. Hell, like I said before, most all of these tracks are pretty cool. It's hard to pick favorites.
And the tracks I don't like? Well, the only one that totally annoys me is Evestus' version of "Delete Yourself". I was rather irritated by past material of theirs, and this song is pretty much the same elevator techno shit that I've heard from them before. There are some other little bits here and there that I don't dig as much, but that is the only real cut that I feel sucks all together.
All in all, I think that "The virus has been spread" is a pretty solid effort. It's got nice packaging, spiffy production, decent songs and more than a fair share of DHC attitude. I only wonder if there are many ATR fans who would want to buy a tribute album. If you happen to fall in that camp, your money won't be wasted.
posted by: Royce Icon on 2007-06-01 21:49:32
Twilight Zone
(www.twlight-zone.it)
Mi sono avvicinato a questa release con qualche riserva,
infatti non ho mai apprezzato in generale i dischi tributo, ritenendoli
un modo subdolo per fare soldi sfruttando il sudore di qualcun altro, e
suonando brani già affermati senza dover faticare per scriverli. Nel
caso particolare di "The virus has been spread" c'è sicuramente da dire
che gli Atari Teenage Riot hanno rappresentato una fonte di ispirazione
unica e importante per tutta la produzione della D-Trash, e un album
tributo vale realmente come un ringraziamento alla band di Alec Empire.
Inoltre gli autori coinvolti in questa operazione sono tutti (o quasi)
prodotti dalla stessa etichetta canadese e le sonorità proposte, per
quanto vigano sfumature differenti, riconducono alla stessa matrice
punk-hardcore elettronica, altamente debitrice degli Atari. Così da una
parte viene salutata la massima fonte di ispirazione, mentre dall'altra
vengono presentati molti degli artisti dell'etichetta di Toronto con
fare promozionale e pubblicitario. Tra i momenti più riusciti c'è la
breakcore di Howard Roark ("No Remorse"), Zymotic con "Into the death",
in cui si fa sentire la matrice death metal, sebbene ritoccata
dall'elettronica, splendide le venature EBM di 64Revolt, che si
cimentano con "You can't hold us back", mentre interessanti rasoiate
punk-hardcore provengono da DHC Meinhof, che rivisitano "Revolution
Action". Gli altri brani non sono comunque da scartare e il risultato
finale è buono, tenendo sempre conto che tutto il merito dell'operazione
va ricondotto in primis agli Atari Teenage Riot. Un avviso per i fans
più accaniti dell'ensemble coverizzato: potreste storcere il naso
sentendo certi classici rielaborati in modo assurdo, ascoltate il CD
senza preconcetti (se ci riuscite!).
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