Raving Wild is an indie, blues and folk musician from Buckinghamshire in Aylesbury. Currently signed to Coffee Jingle Records, he is in the process of finishing his first album titled “Kolmanskop” with one track featuring on BBC 6 in recent times. Using a heavily modified PRS, a Boss loop station and several effect pedal he generates sounds larger than what you would expect of a typical solo musician.
“Kolmanskop” is a smoldering, pulsating, and purposeful book of songs. From its emotion-rousing, self-titled track, to the darkly cinematic “I Know Nothing,” and the beautiful melancholy of “At The Crossroads” to the insistent nostalgic harmony of “Made Of Gold”, the album bristles with tense passion and hypnotic charm. It is in two words, bewitching and addictive.
Mellow yet uplifting; not too fast, not too slow, neither too hard nor too soft, there is an undertone of melancholy to all the songs. I’m not quite sure how to describe the feeling, but if I had to try, I’d say it’s a sense of hopefulness with a hint of loss. Like looking forward to what’s new while having to let go of the old. Wonder at the unknown, but also the sadness of giving up the familiar.
The sonics inspire visions of wide-open spaces, a weathered two-lane dirt road running through a barren desert. The sense of possibility, that anything can happen. The heart-punch of lost love combined with a restless spirit and a determined soul. These are the sights and feelings that this music evoked in me. Then I considered that the title of the album refers to a ghost town in the Namibian desert, and it all began to make sense.
The vocals are high and charmingly rustic, placed just ahead of the instrumentation, and there’s a deep reverberating sound to the production that makes the songs feel simultaneously big and airy, yet somehow intimate. As for listening to the album on headphones, you will discover just how richly layered the sounds are and how many little notes, tones, and extra rhythms are present that are otherwise slightly lost through speakers. Thick and rich, layer by layer, brilliant musical craftsmanship together with sincere, honest, and genuine lyrics, soothingly dispersed and radiated by fittingly spot-on and soulful vocals, drenched with beautiful harmonies throughout – there is not a single, even slightly weak song on this album…the whole thing is musical bliss.
Get this aural work of alternative indie-folk art by Raving Wild, and have it readily available to indulge in and enjoy at will. Let these tunes wash over you. Let this music saturate you. Repeat as often as desired for optimal results.
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