Ravenous – Forward To The Roots (Album – RepoRecords)
Genre/Influences: Electro-Pop, Body-Pop.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Ravenous is back after a silence of more than twenty years! Tim Fockenbrock, Björn Böttcher and Gerrit Thomas decided to recover the project from the dust, releasing a few new songs plus previously unreleased tracks, rarities and remixes. Kai Schmidt is no longer involved.
Content: The album is a way to get back to the 90s, the decade wherein Ravenous as a side-project of Funker Vogt released 3 albums in between 1996 and 2000. The songs are a softer and more Pop-orientated version of Funker Vogt, but you still recognize some typical bass lines and arrangements of Gerrit Thomas. The new songs are holding on to this approach. You can compare it with some older songs and the previously unreleased “Frozen Tears”, which was meant to be released as a single/EP in 2001. Remixes have been accomplished by Re/Work and The Dust Of Basement, both originally made in 2000.
+ + + : It’s maybe not a good idea to compare Ravenous to Funker Vogt, but it definitely sounds like a softer and Electro-Pop driven edit. The drums, bass lines, strings and melody lines are clearly evoking Funker Vogt, but the songs are all more polished and driven by clear vocals. The new songs –and especially “Roots” are cool cuts carried by a strong chorus. The previously unreleased “Frozen Tears” is another cool song so in the end it sounds great this previously unreleased EP-title song finally saw the daylight. Among the other ‘older’ songs I especially recommend “Empire” for its harder approach and irresistible, icy lead. It’s also cool to remind us of bands like Re/Work and The Dust Of Basement. It’s also interesting to re-discover a few songs that were originally recorded in the studio of Sevren Ni-Arb (X Marks The Pedwalk) where numerous great artists recorded their work back in the 90s.
– – – : The question is if this album will also stand for a new start of Ravenous? This one is a cool way to re-discover this project, but a totally new full length would be more interesting.
Conclusion: If you like the work and sound of Gerrit Thomas, you for sure are going to like this album filled with rarities and some extra new songs.
Best songs: “Empire – Unreleased Version 1999”, “Faster Than Time – Alternative Version 1996”, “Roots”, “Frozen Tears 2021”.
Rate: 7½.
Artist: www.ravenous.de / www.facebook.com/Ravenous-102636321922141
Label: www.reporecords.de / www.facebook.com/pages/Repo-Records/119590774857404 Read the news on ‘Forward To The Roots’.
About Ravenous
Ravenous is a German electro-industrial and synth-pop project that Discogs lists with Gerrit Thomas, Kai Schmidt, Tim Fockenbrock and Björn Böttcher. Thomas is also a member of Funker Vogt.
The project released “Mass Mental Cruelty” in 1996, “No Retreat And No Surrender” in 1998, “Silverray” in 1999 and “Phoenix” in 2000. RepoRecords reissued the “Lemmings” EP in 2006 and released the 2021 singles “Roots” and “Frozen Tears” before the album.
The band spoke about the record in a Click Interview with Ravenous published in January 2022.
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