NME - Single Of The Week 09/1998
Review by Stephen Dalton
All anarchists are sexy, according to an ancient Malcom McLaren t-shirt.
If so, then Digital Hardcore are the sexiest anarchists in the universe, a leather-clad Baader-Meinhof gang of revolutionary teenage noise terrorists.
Nic Endo is one quarter of Atari Teenage Riot and, starting now, a solo artist.
To christen Digital Hardcore's new "electronic riot grrrl" sister label Fatal, this German-Japanese punk goddess has made probably the most hardcore record ever.
A five-track EP with no tunes, no words, no beats and no concession to human pain barriers.
Just an astonishing, terrifying, exhilarating roller-coaster ride of computer generated noise which will burst eardrums, empty bottles and take breath away.
Try sitting through Nic Endo's appallingly beautiful symphonies of pure, monolithic, screamingly nihilistic noise. AAAAAARGGH!!!
See? Even if you never listen to this record again, you must hear it once.
Before now, Digital Hardcore were merely the true heirs to the Pistols, Public Enemy and Prodigy.
Now we can add Napalm Death, My Bloody Valentine, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane and Karlheinz Stockhausen to the list of avantgarde sonic revolutionaries they have overtaken.
Nic Endo is only 22. She hates you, your lifestyle, your politics and your records. Be very afraid.
WHITE HEAT EP
(Digital Hardcore Recordings 1998)
BUY
Review:
Biba Kopf / The Wire
She-Satellites is the pseudonym for Atari Teenage Riot's noise programmer Nic Endo, whose second solo album (the first being Nic Endo's 'White Heat' on Digital Hardcore) reflects a more adventurous approach to noise and beats than her contributions in Atari Teenage Riot. The interplay between the digitized tones has an antiquated feel of the electronic music composers of the 60s (sounding very much like Arne Nordheim or Vladimir Ussachevsky) and accompanies a start-n-stop array of crunchy breakbeats. 'At its frequent best, 'Poison Lips' restores frissons of pleasure to noise zones, where punishment beatings had become the rule.'
SHE-SATELLITES -
POISON LIPS
(GEIST Recordings 1999)
Nic Endo
Cold Metal Perfection
By Tim Pratt
Nic Endo is probably best known for her affiliation with Germany's Atari Teenage Riot, the Alec Empire-led DIY group that combines acerbic, politically motivated lyrics with shrill, skull-splitting music; a blitzkrieg of hardcore punk, speed metal, jungle, industrial, techno, and noise rock. The American-born, German-reared Endo is the band's chief "noisemaker."
Cold Metal Perfection, Endo's third solo release, continues down an experimental path, emphasizing harsh, off-kilter synth tones and eerie, contemplative, effect-laden textures. It is her most impressive solo work yet, though upon initial listens it feels relatively awkward and unfocused. But dig deeper beneath the stark, trebly arrangements and sharp, digital squiggles and you'll uncover a calculated, masterful album. Cold Metal Perfection is an impressive synthesis of way-out-there avant-garde jazz and up-to-the-minute experimental electronic music; she seems to assimilate Sun Ra-inspired free jazz with the music of John Cage. Along the way, Endo -- a classically trained pianist -- tosses in sly references to Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead" (listen carefully to the first few notes of album-opener "Man-Eater"), '80s electro ("I Didn't Exist"), horror film soundtracks, and tinny industrial. Whooshing gusts of metallic glitches, tinkly keyboards, and knuckle-tightening half-melodies also punctuate the tense, uneasy mood throughout the album. Cold Metal Perfection's sinewy production (recorded, engineered, and produced by Endo) provides the perfect soundtrack for someone winding down from a long acid trip while watching a psychotic puppet show.
COLD METAL PERFECTION
(GEIST Recordings 2001)
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