Alec Empire VS Elvis Presley

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

Alec Empire - The Destroyer 7"

I first heard Atari Teenage Riot at college in 1996. It's not like it was the most original stuff I'd ever heard, but it was some of the loudest, angriest and fiercest music my young mind had ever absorbed, and that meant a lot to me at the time. I bought the Not Your Business EP on vinyl, even though I didn't have a turntable to play it back with at the time, and made a tape of Burn, Berlin, Burn! from the CD at the radio station I dj'd at. It was very good stuff and I tried to follow their exploits, but not much else happened for the group until they released their follow-up album, 60 Second Wipe Out, a few years later.

Alec Empire, regardless of his group's popularity, continued to release a multitude of remixes and solo records that even now many people haven't been able to find. One of these days I'll post the ridiculous Alec Empire vs. Elvis Presley, Empire's attempt at remixing selections from Elvis' catalog in breakcore style, but for now I want to share a record that isn't that rare but still not easy to come by.

In 1996, via the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal label which then had distribution for Empire's Digital Hardcore Recordings, a 7" named The Destroyer and credited to Alec Empire was released. Not to be confused with Empire's album of the same name, this release featured only two tracks, the first being 22:24 which was also released on Empire's Low On Ice album, with the second being The Peak which also appeared on The Destroyer album.

The title for the release made things a little confusing, especially for myself as I thought 22:24 was actually named The Destroyer and that Empire had credited himself solely as The Destroyer, but that's another reason the internet is so great as it made possible that something so confusing for so long could be made so thoroughly clear so quickly. That's all kind of beside the point though as this is an amazing record with Empire manipulating a James Brown beat and processing the hell out of it in a much softer and dubbier style than he was then known for on 22:24. It's a real triumph of a track, announcing for those unaware that Alec Empire could do much more than make a racket. The Peak, on the other hand, sounded basically like an Atari Teenage Riot track without the vocals, but that's okay because it still pounds like a jackhammer fourteen years later!

If you think that Alec Empire is just the guy who made the beats for Atari Teenage Riot, grab this single and let yourself be surprised. If you find yourself wanting more, may I suggest the aforementioned Low On Ice and the excellent Generation Star Wars, both of which are solo Empire releases that go far beyond his basic breakcore formula. The first Curse Of The Golden Vampire album is also worth checking out, as it's a devastatingly heavy collaboration between Empire and the guys from Techno Animal. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Re-uploaded for anyone having trouble. If it continues, I'll just upload the tracks individually.

Alec Empire - The Destroyer 7"

01 22:24
02 The Peak