I know what everyone's thinking: "Oh great, here comes another computer frolicking nerd making a tribute album to Star Wars." Fear not, this has no references to Stars Wars, but I assume that Alec Empire is a computer frolicking nerd. Nerd or not, he touches on subjects that are more appealing than the lame sci-fi movies that spawned thousands of tiring parodies and legions of wacko fans. Okay, maybe he doesn't "touch" on subjects, as the album has no lyrics/vocals, but the song titles are certainly interesting. The ones that I can understand at least,
Blutrote Nacht Ober Berlin is a bit of a stretch for English. Disregarding the German ones, the colourful song titles include
Sonyprostitutes,
Pussy Heroin, and
Smack. Who taught this guy English?
Generation Stars Wars is a moody, bipolar, even violent album. The album mixes dense, slashing synth beats, with Industrial like grinding noise, cheesy techno blurbs, and atmospheric ambience. The album kicks off its ambitious collage immediately, with the daunting, 10 minute
Lash the 90ties, beginning with a calm ambient droning, that's placidity is quickly ridden after buzzing hip hop beat is introduced. The song progresses like that, the serene droning continuing while the scratchy beats zip and zoom their way through the song at an entirely opposite pace. The uneasy mix somehow maintains itself for 10 minutes. All the longer songs on the album follow a similar structure, mixing the refined, and orchestral, with the frantic, yet freeform, while adding in pinches of odd computer bleeps.
Most of the first half of
Generation Star Wars alternates between aggressive, industrial beats and spacey ambient murmurs. The rest of the album is where the deal gets interesting. Or possibly unbearable, if the listener was liking the safe formula of aggressive, and rhythmic techno-punk jabs mixed with the environmental noise waves.
Sonyprostitutes already hinted at a quirkiness that Alec Empire was capable of, with the song consisting of spacey effects trailing off over a catchy, cheesy dance beat. The hints of industrial still continue through the album, but in more eclectic stances, such as
New Acid, a stormy instrumental with the core of the song being a whooshing machine sound, and a sample of a guy saying "LSD25, a derivative of lysergic acid." Both
NY Summer I and
II are oddities, the former mostly just a recording of a baseball game, the latter incorporating an eerie slow motion voice sample through out the song.
Generation Star Wars is a rocky listen throughout, oddly mixing many things at once, whether it be clashing moods of music, or what should be funny samples with hostile music. Even in the most desolate tracks, like
Smack, comprised of warm electric bleeps, the production and feel of the album is dense. Alec Empire's solo debut is something that doesn't have enough fun tracks to be the type of electronica album to put on at any time ("Hey kids, let's listen to
Pussy Heroin for the trip to Disneyland!"), but is interesting enough to pack a punch whenever it is put on.
