Edacious, voracious, unrestrained appetite… These are just a few associations to the English term “ravenous”, which in this case couldn’t describe better what drives the German electro band.
Ravenous and prompts them after a long hiatus to release a new album on the 25th anniversary of their 1996 debut album.
The roots of Ravenous can be traced back to 1989. The fruits of their determined studio work at that time could be harvested a few years later: Celebrated as newcomer of the year on Off Beat in 1996, releases on various cult labels such as Zoth Ommog, Bloodline or Metropolis Records followed, steadily accompanied by concerts in Europe and the USA.
In the now almost 20 years lasting creative break, the three completely different characters of the band have musically gone their own ways: While Björn Böttcher, after an extensive live artist career with Funker Vogt, ultimately delved into label and artist management with RepoRecords, Gerrit Thomas, as the musical head of the band, developed into one of the most sought-after
music producers in the scene. In addition to Ravenous, Funker Vogt and Eisfabrik established themselves as further successful facets of his work. Tim Fockenbrock, for his part, dedicated himself to various bands of his musical roots outside the scene and allowed himself excursions into the “speaker” genre as a dubbing artist.
Forward to the Roots This special mixture of their different musical socializations has now resulted in their 4th album: an exciting mix of new songs, unreleased tracks and rarities from the band archive, typical for Ravenous: In addition to the re-recording of the single “Frozen Tears” (originally planned for 2001 but never released).
Ravenous present three completely new tracks with “Roots”, “Here Again” and “Free Me”, which are rounded off by the previously unreleased “If you believe it”.
The focus for the band is clearly on the 4 new works: The driving beats, the typical melancholy and the unmistakable charismatic voice of Tim Fockenbrock
Equally interesting for the fans are certainly the treasures from the band’s archive, ranging from unreleased versions of tracks from the 1996 debut (recorded by X-Marks the Pedwalk master- mind Andre Schmechta),
two unreleased remixes, demos and rarities. All tracks have been care-fully re-mastered by Gerrit Thomas.
With “Forward to the Roots” the past was not discarded, but hungrily and smackingly consumed, internalized and digested with head held high and looking forward to live hungrily into the future again. Coming full circle…
“Forward to the Roots” is, so to speak, a thank you to all the tireless souls who never believed in the demise of this band!