Koxbox

I wonder if my limited English vocabulary allows me to entertain the reader to understand what a colossal and influential group Koxbox has been. Their story seems to have started in 1990 and officially their first released production is the track 'Echoes Of Dawn' from 1992. Now, at the time of writing, I seem not to find this track on online music stream sites, but rest assured it's somewhat similar to their first two vinyls from 1993 - tracks that are around 130bpm with musical similarity to their debut album 'Forever After'.

So, a good moment to kinda jump right into saying a few words about 'Forever After'. I don't think it's easy to describe this album tbh! It's got, as mentioned, similar aesthetic to their first two vinyls but in general they've increased the tempo to be around 138-140 mark. Needless to say, I suppose, but naturally you can spot some amount of technical development here too. I've listened to the album hundreds of times in my life and the absolutely stupendous attention to small little details, funky basslines and well structured melodies is still bemusing my mind, especially if you look at the date when this album was composed: (1993?-) 1994-1995. The album cover art is amazing snapshot into the mentality of this music; it feels like some alien insect is buzzing and crawling in some cyberspace pipelines and recording its own primal genetic behavior. Hah, didn't want to sound too poetic there, but you ought to listen to this album yourself to figure it out.

Koxbox had a brief (if you can call a two year period that...) moment around 1996-1997 (with emphasis on 1996) when their exquisite psychedelia met fierce "tour de trance" Goa melodies with full force and capacity. Some fans reckon this as their best period. They went to the extreme depths of their unique sound signature to create tracks that are still reckoned as some of the best ever the whole genre has seen. Not only they dropped bombs like 'Stratosfear', 'Fuel On', 'Too Pure' or 'Life Is', but made two remarkable remixes for Slinky Wizard and Juno Reactor. And I've yet to manage say one word about their 1996-launched side project Psychopod! Psychopod is generally regarded a darker version of Koxbox, and their 'Headlines EP' from 1997 is certainly a proof of that. Yet it must be the 1996 single 'Dreampod' by Psychopod that takes the absolute crown in the portfolio - made in the peak of their melodic Goa period it remains to my ears a flawless production.

What hasn't been mentioned yet is their 2nd album 'Dragon Tales'. The possibilities are two now that I think of it - 1) It was composed around 1996-1997 same time as their obvious Goa hits, but with a clear intention of toning down the melodic angle in favor of darker and more psychedelic flavor. 2) They started to compose this album after 1996 and they were already into experimenting the dark territory. My own guess is the number 2 here. 'Headlines EP' just confirms that in 1997 these guys had their night vision goggles on, bro! x) 'Dragon Tales' is dark yet absolutely funky album. The melodies are here too, a whole lot of them actually, many of the melodic high sounds however are almost like background texture and hard to pinpoint from rest of the track. Would it be too weird to say the tracks are dark and melodic simultaneously? Here their technical ability saw new heights and the album remains a phenomenal display of minuscule details woven into great psychedelic adventures. Only Simon Posford reached similar, celestial precision with his work in the 90s.

Their 3rd album 'The Great Unknown' came out in 1999. Things had changed by then! Peter Candy had left the group and their sound went through a pivotal change - but to be a bit realistic, all good things come to an end sooner or later. Now, I do think 'The Great Unknown' is also a brilliant album on its own. I find it a bit all around album with Koxbox going in all imaginable directions be it the smooth groover 'King Of Jazz' or the night corker 'Lunar Bin'. It's also quite probably the technical peak of Koxbox, they do really fantastic programming on this album. Something that I like to study sometimes to find inspiration for my own music. :)

Me, being a huge Koxbox fan, have to end this blabber here thou. I've got no major sympathy for Koxbox sound after it became a Frank E solo project. Maybe the techno-oriented tracks with Ian Ion on 'U-Turn' should be mentioned. Very nice exploration into something they had not done in the past. 'The Scanner' might sound good to many people with its good up-to-date production and all, but it lacks idea and soul in its song-writing and is ultimately just another album of full-on fodder.

Well, if you don't mind, let me end in a positive note and say EVERYTHING they did between 1992-1999 is top class material. No fillers all killers yo. There's not one single artist in psy/Goatrance scene that could match that, is there?