Tweaker
- 2 am wake-up call
By Tim Byrnes
Chris Vrenna has contributed everything
from beats and programming to complete sonic overhaul for everybody from
Peter Himmelman to Marilyn Manson to Chuck D. to Bowie. Best known perhaps
as the former drummer of Nine Inch Nails, Vrenna has, along with co-producer
guitarist Clint Walsh (Jack Off Jill, Dwarves etc) and a raft of heavy
guest vocalists/lyricists (Robert Smith, David Sylvain, Hamilton Leithauser,
Nick Young and Mellowdrone) come up with this, the 2nd release under the
Tweaker name, and a kinder, gentler Tweaker it is. Tweaker's 1st CD "The
Attraction of All Things Uncertain" was a programmed like the Borg; monolithic
and unsettling in it's mechanical perfection, but possessive of a cold,
cold, heart - although I think that was the point of that CD and a lot
of Industrial music in general - whereas "2am wake-up call", a hymn to
insomnia, cradles it's dark night of the soul in the warm wood of pianos,
guitars and the human performance. Vrenna walks a thin line twixt noir
and postmodernism, delicately balancing the surreal with the commonplace,
the blue cool hum of sleeplessness with the hope of a new day rising.
Sylvain's turn on "Pure Genius" is, too
me just that. There's just always been something kind of Lord Byron about
David Sylvain to me and his smooth, mannered vocals blend well with the
anxious sonics thrown down by Vrenna and company. Robert Smith, while admittedly
an acquired taste, shines here on "Truth Is", bringing that lost boy yearning
of his into the center of this calm storm. The feeling I get from this
CD as a whole, is one of benign isolation. Not so much the us against
the world' vibe so common to all things Goth, but more us AWAY from the
world....for a time....figuring stuff out, and it's all ok'. A vague reassurance,
to be sure, but I'll take my hope where I find it.
As with the more recent work of his former
employer Trent Reznor, Vrenna opts for a more solid emotional base this
time out. "2 am wake-up call" should never be confused with an episode
of Up With People, but it's nice to see a ray of light (if only the moonlight
of the sleepless night) coming through these new cracks in those walls
that do as much to keep us out as Tweaker in.
CD Info
Tweaker
- 2 am wake-up call
Label: Waxploitation/
Ultimatum
Release Date:
April 20, 2004
Rating: 
Tracks:
Ruby (featuring Will Oldham)
Cauterized
Worse Than Yesterday (Featuring Mellowdrone)
Truth Is (Featuring Robert Smith)
Remorseless
Pure Genius (Featuring David Sylvian)
Its Still Happening (Featuring Hamilton
Leifthauser)
2 a.m.
Movement of Fear
Sleepwalking Away (Featuring Nick Young)
The House I Grew Up In
Crude Sunlight (Featuring Jennifer Charles) |
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