If you were on the road constantly with your very high-profile group, making ridiculously explosive music on a regular basis and pushing yourself far beyond your limits, how do you think you'd relax? For Alec Empire, he decided to record a solo record that was partially a parody of his group, Atari Teenage Riot, the sound he helped create, generally referred to as breakcore or digital hardcore, and arguably the world's best known performer, Elvis Presley. It sounds like a joke and the results weren't the best things Empire had produced, but all in all Alec Empire VS Elvis Presley is a pretty serious affair.
Empire sampled a number of Elvis' films and records with the hope to build a bridge between his own artistic aesthetic and Elvis' place in history, and it's actually somewhat successful with Elvis becoming something of a temporary lead-singer for ATR with his performances (occasionally) beat-matched with Empire's precision noise. There are even moments of surprising beauty like the finale, Blue Moon, where Elvis' vocals are time-stretched to their breaking point over a minimal, ambient collection of beeps or Take Away, where the breaks are muted with The King singing peacefully over the restrained fury.
This is supposedly Alec Empire's last straight breakcore record with emphasis on the amen break. Not that Empire ever used the amen in the most traditional way possible, often chopping it to death and running it was faster than any other drum n bass artists dared to. It's still a little odd that he drew the line here with the amen break as his sound wasn't defined by it like other artists were. Alec Empire was always more about blunt force, noise and speed, and he knew the amen was too brittle for many of his assaults, so it was probably more likely he tired of breakcore as a whole or meant this move a symbolic line in the sand for the producers that did abuse the amen regularly.
Empire wanted to release this on his Digital Hardcore Recordings label, but due to the impossibility of clearing the Elvis samples, he realized an alternative arrangement would need to be made. That arrangement involved a limited, pseudo-bootleg release in the US via Can "Khan" Oral's El Turco Loco label on vinyl only. The record became quite the collectible and started appearing on ebay frequently until a few years ago when it gained a pseudo-official release which, in my opinion, is downright offensive. Via The Hellish Vortex's online store, you can purchase a 320kbps MP3 of the album for 16.99 EUR, which is roughly $20 US. Twenty bucks for a compressed, MP3 version of an album just over thirty minutes long that the artist knows they can't legally release otherwise due to copyright issues? If you couldn't release it legally a decade ago then why can you do it now without permission? Hell, the site even has the nerve to claim this album is considered the first mash-up. WHAT??? Who are they fooling?
As I'm sure everyone knows I'm not about sharing music you can purchase legally, but I believe this is the exception if there ever was one. So, for your enjoyment, below you will find a high-quality MP3 version of the album for download as well as a lossless FLAC version.
To give you a little background on the source of this rip, I used to own an original copy of the El Turco Loco vinyl release, which is the only physical release as far as I am aware, and that's where this rip is sourced from. Unfortunately, I don't have the record any longer, and I have no idea what happened to it. Lent it to someone? Lost it in a move? Sold it or gave it away? It could be any of those, and that's a massive thorn in my side, but in my defense, at the time I owned this record I had nothing reliable with which to play back vinyl on so whatever happened I probably didn't care at the time. It's a shame but what can I do? Anyway, apart from track separation and an increase in volume, no post-processing was performed on this rip, so you'll hear some vinyl clicks from time to time. Also, regarding the lack of fidelity on this rip, it has nothing to do with the vinyl or the equipment used to transfer it, the album is simply very rough sounding, so don't be surprised if you're thinking to yourself that this doesn't sound very hi-fi because it doesn't.
So, I hope you enjoy this utterly ridiculous album. If you want to support Alec Empire, don't buy this from his website, instead get something like the fabulous Low On Ice, Generation Star Wars or The Destroyer. I'm sure you'll find none of those albums cost $20 for an MP3 version. Hell, even at 320kbps, $20 is simply insane. Sorry Alec, but I have to call 'em like I see 'em.
Alec Empire - Alec Empire VS Elvis Presley
UPDATE: For anyone having trouble with tracks four in the FLAC or seven in the MP3 versions, they are now available to download individually. Sorry for the delay. Grab them in the tracklist below. Oh, and the regular links still work about as well as they have so far, which is "mostly acceptable".
V0 MP3 Version
FLAC Version
01 Jailhouse Cock Rocks The Most
02 You Ain't Nothing
03 Something For The Pain
04 Take Away (get the FLAC version HERE!)
05 Come On, Fight You Punk!
06 I Am Going Insane Without Your Love
07 He's Dead, That's The Way It Is (get the MP3 version HERE!)
08 Last Message From The Soul
09 Fuck The Majors
10 Blue Moon
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