Nintendo Teenage Robots - We Punk Einheit! Mp3

This album by Alec Empire is a very rare piece of art created with minimal gear. I wouldn’t really label it chiptune though. More so experimental. Did I enjoy it? I finally sat down to listen to it, got through about half of it and thought some parts were really enjoyable, other parts really irritating. And this is coming from someone that loves about everything that Alec creates, from his solo work to his side projects to his work in Atari Teenage Riot... and I’ve seen them play a few times live even. I feel as though this album was somewhat rushed or poorly put together... as if Alec was just having fun in his studio one day and thought to press the record button because things were getting interesting, similar to his Vs. Elvis Presley album. Despite this feeling I am the proud owner of this release on Vinyl and MP3 and I’m interested enough in it to finish listening to it. If you like weird stuff from the 80’s, give this a listen. If you enjoy playing video games, you might find yourself grooving to a few tracks from this one. All in all, Alec has served up something special and unique in ‘We Punk Einheit!’ and it’s a must have for any Alec Empire collector completist.

Alec's chiptune album isn't really something interesting. The sound is rather avant garde for its time, but compared to most Chiptune artists nowadays the songs on this album come across rather irrating and repetive. I do admire alec though for his totally lo-res style he has done with the gameboy camera on this album and the songtitles are rather interesting ("The Beatles Never Counted" and "Condom Personality" are two of my favourites) but apart from that i suggest downloading this album instead of tracking it down.

This is an interesting release. For what it is, it's completely brilliant and quite ahead of it's time (even though Alec wasn't the first to release music done on a Game Boy). Contrary to popular belief, the album was not done with Nanoloop. Production of Nanoloop didn't start until 1999, and although the album was released in '99, the tracks were programmed by Alec in 1998. The Game Boy Camera DJ application has a very distinct sound, although it uses the same method of synthesis as something like Nanoloop or Little Sound DJ, and if you've used one, then you'll know that it was used on this release. The album may lack a lot of catchy melodies and the sound quality may be a bit rough at times, but the tracks certainly show a lot of character.

This isn't your typical chiptune release, and I will dare to say that although this would fall under the "textbook definition" of chiptune (music synthesized with a computer or video game sound chip), it isn't what most people would think of when they hear the word chiptune. It has an experimental, avant-garde feel to it. In my opinion, this release is Alec's social commentary about the whole Game Boy "scene", be it in Berlin or elsewhere. Even though Alec may not be a pioneer of the chiptune/micromusic movement, this record is definitely worthy of recognition.