Bedroom, or shall we be more precise and say home recording musicians seem to be a very common instance these days. Most of them rarely catch the eye of the more general public. For some that is quite fortunate, since their stuff should never leave their bedroom anyway, for others, quite a shame. Once in a while, such an artist catches the ear of music critics and reviewers and they start raving about them. Manchester’s Badly Drawn Boy was one such instance that made it. At least for a while, he seems to be (sadly) missing in action at the moment. But for some, even that is not enough to make it to the wider audience.
Oliver Wilde, currently of Bristol, England, seems to be the case. By the evidence of what he has recorded so far, including his latest, Post-Frenz Container Buzz, hopefully, it is a temporary thing. Actually, I found out his latest offering by having a chance listen to his first album from 2013, A Brief Introduction To Unnatural Lightyears. It was one of those instances when the music instantly grabs your ears, mind, and throat instantly. Going into more detail, it turns out that The Guardian called it “astonishing” and NME labeled Wilde as “a Nick Drake for the 21st Century”. Still, that seems not to help Wilde much or any of his numerous side projects.
A few albums later, I sincerely hope Post-Frenz Container Buzz will finally create some buzz for Oliver Wilde. Don’t know about the NME Nick Drake comparison, unless they had in mind that Wilde also has a great voice and is able to show inventiveness in any modern music style that comes up to mind. I’m not sure what Post-Frenz means, could be a variation on post-friends or there is a letter y missing at the end of frenz. Or it could be both. Judging on the music, I’d say both. Basically, with this album, the expression ‘everything but a kitchen sink’ does not apply. The kitchen sink is in there too. Along the above mentioned Badly Drawn Boy the recent names that do come up to mind are Fog, Self and Why? and while he still has to match to match the melodiousness of BDB (although he is pretty damn close), he certainly surpasses the latter three (and not as frenz-ied as Self). Expect even greater things. Post-Frenz? Maybe. Post-Everything, actually.
