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CCWS Caffeine Charlies Wake-up Service (self-titled cassette)
This release came to me via my partner in crime around here, Pete Hartman, who described it as "quite industrial, but not really my thing." Intriguing I thought. Let me have it. Real industrial noise that is produced to be listenable is rare. Check out some of Controlled Bleeding's early releases to see what I mean... even I have a hard time listening to the sort of harsh stuff that appears on albums like Hog Floor. CCWS falls into that catagory, yet its not nearly so taxing on the nerves as a lot of this sort of thing I've heard. In fact, it's noise I could listen to over and over again. Lets go blow by blow... Side one opens with Chop, with its low rumbling and softmachine gun rhythms punctuated with muffled cries of demons from hell and occasional pink noise bursts. It gets harsher near the end (many of the tracks have somewhat abrupt changes in personality near their ends) and then jumps into Grate, which is more squeeky and chirpy, like a big rusty printing press. Puree is the longest track at just over ten minutes. It starts out fairly soft and ambient, with only occasional noise elements, then it jumps into a long evolving piece that sounds like a tour through a factory. The piece melts into an off-balance calliope eating itself, then referting to higher, thinner noise elements. From here through the end of the side I get a little confused. The last two tracks of the side are titled Stir and Frappe but the segues are somewhat vague coming out of Puree. But generally we hit a little harsher brand of noise, rhythmic pink noise over what sounds like war sounds, then later a humming loop over a pile driver. Going into side two we get the first track with a departure from the theme of the titles up until now. Dahmer Disco is not disco. Lots of random deep percussion loops with various whirring, whipping, and chirping sounds, with some vocal samples near the end. Jumping into Blend the harshness picks up again, featuring a fairly syncrous looping white noise rhythm and sheets of other white noise. Whip has a rolling, boiling, deep noise pattern with sample loops and random electronic noises. Liquify calms down considerably, almost sparse. Processed vocal samples over boiling mud with some electronics over the top. Which brings us to the last and most eyeopening tack, Fuse. There are two independent parts, one fairly average white noise, the other more rhythmic with snatches of soap opera organ. But what gets one's attention here is the production: One track sounds fairly normal, but the other employs some weird digital effect that makes it seem as if the sound is coming from somewhere else. For me, with my stereo beside me, it sounded as if the noise was coming from behind my computer, which is in front of me. A very cool effect. The production is fairly good. The liner notes are clean and succinct, sparse and utilitarian but a good match for the ambience of the album. The biggest problem with albums like this is that, since white noise collages are a little farther removed from what people are used to, the tracks begin to get a little anonymous sounding by the middle of the second side, if not sooner. It's kinda like someone not familiar with classical music (saying) that is all sounds the same; we most likely don't know enough about the type of music to make finer discriminations. Such will likely be the case here. Of course, the opposite problem is that it's hard to tell with this type of music what is "good", since we normally have little else to compare it to. Such is my situation; I can't find anything wrong with CCWS mostly because I wouldnt know "wrong" if it walked up and shook hands with me. So I can only go on my gut reaction on this one, and my gut reaction is fairly positive. If you like the noisy, non-dance side of industrial, especially Controlled Bleeding, the noiser elements of Throbbing Gristle, or the more ambient moments of Einsturzende Naubauten, you might enjoy CCWS. If you're a hardcore wax-trax head, don't bother. Theres nothing here for you. Too bad. It's your loss. Taken from Escape from Noise Digest e-zine / February 1993 31337 Dub Disaster Canada's "Lamer of the Year", Caffeine Charlie gives us a portion of his crazy music. Production looks well, pro-printed, chrome tapes, nice cover, recording straight from DAT. Hearing their track on Construction No 009, though it's an total avantgarde, so this left only one to me - get this... Beginning of the first track don't propose nothing interesting, just a 'normal' techno, but only for the first 5 seconds. Then the madness begins and takes you into this weird music, if you'll keep your player turning after the first song you'll get into real disaster. Second song 'Tribalizer' and latest 'Melancholy Folly' uses mystical chorus from eastern cultures and christian churches, as well as some other songs do. Bad is, the time of 'Tribalizer' is only 2:03, this song must not be less than 10 min. If you want to imagine this music, try putting Peter Gabriel/Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan music vinyl turning to the other side, so possibly you'll get this disaster. No doubt, avantgarde ideas at this is best. Avantgarde ambient disaster, even bigger disaster than you can imagine. Taken from 'Dominion of Terror' #9 / 1995 an underground Lithuianian printed music zine. (note: some spelling and word-tense has been corrected to make the review more readable. English is not the first language of the reviewer but the wonderful tone of his review has been preserved and punctuation has not been altered in any way) ...Dub Disaster is exactly what it sounds like. Mr. Tolsma has been known in the past to name his musical projects after bad coffee slogans and the music ends up sounding like it was run through a bean grinder. This time he is abusing the new ambient buzzword of the week by taking the traditional methods of creating the aforementioned dub and ritually dissecting and dismembering it for the public's disapproval. After the melting pot has settled what is left behind are nine full scale musical catastrophes. The sheer amount of dub dissonance is enough to drive any fan to mental oblivion which is exactly what Mr. Tolsma has in mind. Taken from Sonic Boom e-zine / 1995 31337 Dub Destroyer Another Intel-chip-installed weirdo sending in cassettes these days is Caffeine Charlie (tickle, tickle), he of the kands Taken from 'Vancouver Special' column in Discorder newspaper from CITR FM university-radio / October 1995 The companion tape to 31337 'Dub Disaster' Jeremy Tolsma takes on the role of the kinder gentler critic and instead of massacring the ambient dub he aims to accentuate it by means of his own warped rational. Each piece instead of a small trite snippet of lucidity becomes instead an extended remix favored by many a dance club DJ. Never ceasing to end his monstrosity before it becomes full grown Tolsma even carries on his little song and hat dance for up to a preposterous seven minutes in length in order to mimic those who he is lampooning. The nomenclature devised for each track is no less inane as he prides himself upon using the same atrocious naming scheme you would recognize from a professional mixer themselves. So just when you thought it was safe to go back to the clubs for the new wave of ambient artist(s) someone has to release a farcical look at the new fad. That will teach you to come out from hiding behind the nice safe padded cell of your mother's bosom. Taken from Sonic Boom e-zine / 1995
(this artist has mp3's/realaudio online available for free download, click
on releases in the top frame for available tracks and discography)
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