3 out of 5

Label: Digital Hardcore

Producer: Alec Empire

On a first go round, ‘No Safety Pin’ offers what most Alec Empire recordings do – endlessly pummeling BPM that exhaust you through sheer repetition after a couple hard-hitting tracks.  But… the EP does the other thing that Alec Empire solo recordings do, which is open up to layers of inventive samples and breaks if you can tell your ears to just let it wash over you.  It’s still a pretty consistent bumpa-bump of noise, though, make no mistake, so if you’re just looking to rave on the ol’ dancey floor, this EP absolutely provides, excepting some pauses in the hustle to explore some experimentalness via tape rewindings, hissy recordings, etc.

I haven’t listened to nearly enough of Empire’s bag o’ tricks to truly weigh in, but thus far something has remained consistent – which is a sweet live sound to his production.  For all the clatter and shatter he somehow gets these electronic noises to sound warm.  It may be a negative thing, as there seems to be a giant middle finger as his general M.O., and so maybe he wants this all to be real harsh and brittle, but the little crackle and comfortable range of his beats, even when he’s ripping through some really discordant distortion, makes this E.P. (and other recordings I’ve listened to thus far) pretty easy to keep on repeat.  Which is then what works to turn it into music and not just thumps, which then brings your attention to the extra percussion mixed in there, or the little keys twinkling around for no reason.  It’s nothing major, it’s not like some genius extra meta composition or anything, they’re truly just elements that pop in and out around the tracks, but other house stuff would do away with this in favor of the main beat, but it’s those little touches that interest me in seeing what else Empire is up to.