“There were these crazy records coming out, and this was only possible because of the Atari.”
– Alec Empire / Atari Teenage Riot
Considering the name it's not a huge surprise that Atari Teenage Riot's founding member is an avid advocate of Atari. Alec Empire sings high praise of the Atari ST as a musician's tool in an interview by Red Bull Academy.
“Some of the music we made was only possible because of the amount of MIDI information the Atari can process. The Atari just delivers a certain punch.”
Picture: Album Reset, published in 2015 under Digital Hardcore Recordings (rough trade)
When the interview was conducted in 2017, Empire was still actively using STs in his studio to compose his raw and experimental electronic music, which was originally a response to the early 1990s rave and trance. Back then Atari Teenage Riot set out to "destroy" mainstream electronic music. Later he branded his music style "digital hardcore" and founded a label with the same name.