Alec Empire - The Golden Foretaste of Heaven

Like a dystopian Peter Pan, until recently it seemed that Alec Empire would never grow up - his capacity to wreak aural mayhem impressively undiminished since the birth of Atari Teenage Riot in the early nineties. Everyone grows up though, and on this, his umpteenth solo outing, it's as though Empire has abruptly woken from his sonic-punk daydream to find himself with a fat mortgage and a Volvo in the drive. It's not a disaster, but it's pretty close to one; the weak-assed synth noodles and embarrassing vocal stylings on the likes of Robot Love sounding like the work of a disillusioned firebrand who realises he has good enough cheekbones and enough casual nihilism to make it big on the electro scene. The best tracks, like opener New Man, are gritty retreads of the 80s power pop template, the rest is mostly meandering, toothless bollocks. Furthermore, without the usual sheets of white noise to distract us it's all too easy to notice just how bad Empire's lyrics actually are. [Jay Shukla]