Combining driving techno beats with the musical fury and political sloganeering of hardcore punk, Berlin-based Atari Teenage Riot, led by DJ and techno artist Alec Empire, were at the fore of the Digital Hardcore movement based around Empire's label of the same name. Atari Teenage Riot viewed themselves as a vital alternative to both a politically reactionary dance music scene and a tepid punk scene in Germany in the 1990s. ATR/DHR albums were released on the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal Records in the United States.