Digital Hardcore just love assaulting our ears with a fierce combination of punk, noise, jungle and drum & bass, through artists such as Atari Teenage Riot, EC8OR and Hanin Elias. Whether you like their particular brand of angry, confrontational aggression or not, you can't deny that it's original and has a spirit sadly lacking in a lot of the independent scene. The uptight Alec Empire answered a few of my questions, and then directed me to the website www.digitalhardcore.com for any more information.

Visually, DHR records are very individual looking. Who does your design?
The artwork is done by Nic Endo and Alec Empire (apart from anything that is related to Patric C and Equator - then Gina D'Orio does it). Often they try to include ideas from the musicians. The idea from the beginning was to create a DHR identity - there is a DHR style (the design simply works like the music), and it stands out from everything else.

How do your various connections and remixes come about?
People ask me if I want to do it, I check it out and say yes more often than I should! My best work has happened in my remix projects. Alec Empire records have been, so far, more like sketches, raw ideas - that will change. I have done about fifty remixes.

Atari Teenage Riot's 'Rage' seems almost mainstream compare to earlier releases - is this planned?
There is no hierarchy in music, it's just a matter of taste. We always had straight songs with straight beats - 'Destroy 2000 Years of Culture' is a good example. The motivation was simple: everybody has copied the way we fuck up beat structures, so we wanted it to be different. 'Rage' is the best song we've written so far... if a wider audience comes to us because of it, it's OK, but to be honest, I don't give a shit.

Interview by Simon Minter
Find out more at www.digitalhardcore.com