Alec Empire – Generation Star Wars

still today a very good album! Not very up2date of course, but as much of roughness and deepness. That Work definately showed an alternative Tekno route and influenced a whole Colony of Acid, Hardcore, IDM Generation. This is more straight than the breakcore Releases he later came up with, but neither the less exciting.
I like that kinda style even more than that simplistic breakcore stuff he did later on, which other artists were much more accomplished in.

One of the most comprehensively devastating Electronic lps from the early 90s. Tracks like "Lash the nineties" and "Blutrote Nacht Über Berlin" just slay the audio spectrum, with jumped up distorted kicks and analogue synths sceping out and over, you are consumed by the sound. It is very much a box of chocolates in style, never sitting comfortably in one vein, although alot of tracks share a similar sound aesthetic in mood,cuts from breakbeat space symphonies to more abstract atmospheres and even vocal sampled radio and acid. Rates as one of Alec Empire's finest outings on Mille Plateuax and shines far above alot of concurrent and future artists material also.

Most people say that this is Alec Empire's best album ­ Hard industrial rhythms with beautiful and melancholic string arrangements. This is intense. This can only come from Berlin! And only out of one mind!!! The original vinyl version on Mille Plateaux contained very controversial artwork ­-- an army of Star Wars storm troopers with Swastikas on their foreheads, it showed Alec in a Luke Skywalker/Han Solo type of way next to R2D2 and C3PO as the rebel, and a big statement "Fight The Imperial Forces!" Only a few hundred copies went out, before it got censored. (There is a German law that forbids the use of the Swastika ­ even if it is used in an anti-fascist context. Last time it was applied was for The Residents Third Reich 'n' Roll album.) So after that the 12"s and CDs were released with the swastikas erased... until the 5 year contract was up...
Now the music is available again on Geist Records with all the Star Wars images completely removed and just a black cover (no more X-Wing cover, droids, stormtroopers, etc...

Somewhere in deep space, endless width,... all you can get is static noise and variations of the same musical rhythm. Radio noises are interferring the receivers ...but slowly there appears a giant string-sound out of the static, a deep peace took place, until suddenly ( after a few minutes) a nervous hihat-thunder breaks the silence, it becames bigger and mounts in an amazing industrial-breakbeat-attack.
Alec Empire, mastermind of ATR and passionated cyberpunk follows his starwars-nerdism on dis record and upgrades himself as the young Luke Skywalker on the 12"-label.
Here the "Jabba the Hut" Orchestra plays toghether with the tiny beat of a Roland 606. Only with on Akai sampler, the Roland builded SH101, TB303, TR606 and a Boss Pitch Delay effect, Alec Empire creates a strong phuture athmosphere like a film score with no film..
Test the track: Blutrote nacht über Berlin !!! (a musical vision of a drug overload in hong kong)