No Games No Fun

Album Review

No Games No Fun, the second solo album from Hanin Elias, singer and founding member of Atari Teenage Riot, is a powerful mix of industrial beats, crunchy, attacking synth lines, and Elias' alternately sultry and aggressive vocals. On "Catpeople," Elias sounds a bit like Kathleen Hanna, making Elias' solo work sort of a dark, foreboding, and distinctly European companion to Hanna's Le Tigre. It's fitting since Fatal Recordings was founded "to break up the fixed structures of the male-dominated music business." The highlights of No Games No Fun come in the form of the interesting collaborations, from the new wave-y pop of the C.H.I.F.F.R.E. and Elias compositions to her noisy, clamorous work with Einstürzende Neubauten's Alexander Hacke ("Spirits in the Sky"). The flashy Euro-hip-hop piece with Alec Empire ("You Suck") is both groovy and kitschy (if a little one-note), but it's the noise collage, "Rockets Against Stones," with Merzbow that is truly groundbreaking. J Mascis, arguably the most exciting contributor to the album, helps out on the title track with washes of poppy fuzz punk. In the end, Elias' work may not be for everyone, but No Games No Fun is essential listening for fans of Atari Teenage Riot's post-industrial electro-hardcore.