alec empire

Generation Star Wars by Alec Empire
1994, Mille Plateaux, 13 tracks at 1 hr, 13 min.
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RATING: 46 out of 50

L’enfant terrible of German techno, Alec Empire is a man who is very apt at displaying the polarities of his mother culture. Like East and West Germany, Empire’s music is likewise split into opposing factions. He can be stoically ambient, removed of any feeling but fear (Low On Ice, for example). As demonstrated by his early rave work, The Destroyer, and Atari Teenage Riot, he is equally skilled in crafting liberally-minded blitzkriegs of ballistic noise. On his second solo effort, Empire evidences his forte for the dualistic with a epic, hour-plus LP of varying electronic moods.

The results are highly stratified and inconsistent, though Empire’s spotty approach to chaos is often part of his charm. Of the seventy minutes on the disc, the first ten are devoted to one outstanding track, in which several minutes of slow ambience are blurred into a ferocious drum n’ bass rhythm. I’d say it’s derivative of Richard James, but I can’t; this disc was released around the same time Aphex was building his own name. The remaining sixty minutes are likewise varied, with tongue-in-cheek electric exotica (“Sonyprostitutes”), haunting vignettes (“Smack”), and dazzlingly frozen messages from outer space (“Pussy Heroin”).

It’s a mixed bag for certain, and one would think that a man of many talents might not be particularly apt in any one of them. Even if the contents of this disc can figuratively be found elsewhere—and they can—it’s the no holds barred approach which Empire takes to fashioning his own little planet that works. No resource is left stocked; everything is exhausted for exhaustion’s sake.

Writes one Discogs user, “This can only come from Berlin!” That statement, quite bluntly and eloquently, sums up the achievement of Generation Star Wars.

You know what? I never blog about little ole me. It's always "Animal Collective this" or "Postmodern feminism that" or "Bjork Bjork Bjork such and such." So for once, why not a little something about the face behind the squid?

So I'm in New Hampshire for a doctor's appointment, and as I type this IMMA LIVEBLOGGIN FROM PANERA CAFE. YEAHHH, FEEL THE INTERWEBS AGE.

Anyhow, I went to Borders and was browsing The Brothers Karamazov (pretentious douche much?) when I saw I Love You Beth Cooper right beneath it, and I said to myself, "Why?"

Well, actually, I guess that's it. I'm more boring than I thought. Here's an mp3 and a video. Back to writing postmodern reviews of Beth Orton records.*

*Just kidding, I'll leave that to Pitchfork.

Download "Down Satan Down" by Alec Empire (via Megaupload)