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Kox Box - The Great Unknown [ 2000, Liquid Audio Soundz ]
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Yuli
Retired
Started Topics :
40
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1660
Posted : Aug 26, 2005 08:14
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Before I start to review this, I have to say I didnt use the search and maybe someone did that before me.. 
The Great Unknown CD in my opinion marked a new era for psychedelic trance music and obviously, and more importantly the end of something that the new era obviously replaced.. I can recall really few CDs of psy trance that were benchmarks of their time - to name a few There Will Be No Armageddon by Union Jack, Twisted by Hallucinogen and Radio by XDream are the league for this album, and I guess I should explain why I think so - or why do I make a review for 5 years old album for god's shake?
Well the main reason that I review this album is that it contains inside few major elements that are completely missing in psy trance / full on trance these days with some rare exeptions.
The Great Unknown begins with Statement [01] which apart from being pretty neat idea of word games is a foretaste for a journey that we gonna get into, chaotic and unexpected as it is, planned to the smallest detail by two extremely imaginative minds of two extremely talented musicians that arent bounded to no visible rule except the rule of making art without boundaries. Go Fly a Kite [02] is an ethnic / tribal / rockish / chasiddic laid back piece that shows the Kox Box duo as very high quality musicians. It is not as twisted as most of this album, and has quite shanti feel all over it, here we also get the foretaste of the Kox Box trademark sign - the unending and transparent morphing / flowing / changing of groove patterns. The Great Unknown [03] is the track that leaves its listener with the what the fuck all over his face and personally for me it is one of the greatest psychedelic tracks ever. Basically it sums up the whole idea of this review - it reeks from musical talent and complexity of musical ideas in one piece, it is bounded to no rule whatsoever, there are more bassline patterns in this track than in whole artist album today, and still it manages to take u till the end and press the << BACK button to hear it again. Being a musician myself it is really amazing hearing a piece of music that u constantly ask yourself how the hell did they do this? Five years later I don't have an answer for many of my questions back then, except of maybe that what happens when you just do what u want / feel / imagine. 6 Cells [04] is a chunky psy groover that has inside some techy grooves, some housey-like sounds and endless amount of psychedelia - I will spare you from going over the mantra again just listen to the first 1:30 minutes of the track to see how tekky loop morphs into bassline that morphs into beat that ends in a laugh... Crunchy Moles [05] that is known more as 'Major Problem in Australia' was mixed by heeps of world known artists, and probably the hit of this album, being the most easy listening and more clubby then others still damn psychedelic chunk of music - the funny thing about it is that only a half of a year of listening to this track I figured out that almost thru half of the track they play with synthesized speech that keeps saying 'Crunchy Moles' in variety of ways.. Now I listened at least 20 times to this track before I noticed this Du Traveller [06] is actually a short speech quite funny btw that takes us to next phase of the album.
Till now there was not even ONE break in those tracks - u know break as if to KILL THEM ALL thingie
Geomancer [07] and Lunar Bin [08] are much faster then the first 5 tracks that didnt rise above 134 bpm. I must say that I seriously dislike no.7 and there wasnt one time that I didnt skip it in all the times I heard this CD - every time in different stage but never lasted to the end of it... Lunar Bin on the other hand eventho being 146 bpm, a speed I forgot long time ago is a totally sick and twisted track - this track is most probably a faster brother of number 3, since by the amount of key / speed / groove changes of this track one would already finish a whole album. If one would listen to this track without the context of the whole album tho, one would think probably that he is dealing with two seriously twisted individuals that make quite a lot of random annoying noises.. but it is not. There is nothing random in this mess ( and there is a lot of mess there ) u just have to listen to it to get the point. BTW with all its 146 bpm speed it doesnt go a bit aggressive and stays psychedelic as hell - HOW CAN THIS BE for crying out loud
Doppleganger [9] starts as a flowing continuation of the previous track goes into Electro / Jazzy thing that drops speed and thru killer ( yes I used this word hehe ) use of time stretched samples that I cant believe someone had the patience to do all this insanity... It finishes with a chilled out speech that seems to be a practical joke but 5 years passed and I didnt get the point... I have time to dig it I guess
Last track called King of Jazz and as the name implements, it goes thru broken beat rythms with jazzy saxophone and trumpets, the beats here as in all this CD are state of art and suddenly at around 7 minutes it changes into 4 on the floor killer beat groover with funk samples and a guy going 'What is the point?' heh good question. The sample work after this till the end is immaculate. This track summs up all the CD by borrowing phrases from different parts in it and as all this CD as diverse as only two sick and twisted heads of the guys behind Kox Box can invent.
To summ up : Not a bit of agression, not 1 break for hands up in the air thingie, constant morphing and twisting with a lot of wittiness, good humor in the music itself and sampling and if I am not mistaken one or two messages for those who care to listen.
Unfortunately this style of trance is non existant for 5 years now.
  A man with a "master plan" is often a woman |
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Pavel
Moderator
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312
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8646
Posted : Aug 26, 2005 09:17
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I'll have to agree with everything above. This is one of my 5 fav. psy albums ever. Took me some time to digest it (i was hearing Astral Projection at that time) but once it hits you it hits you hard. One of the 3 albums that set the high standards for progressive trance in 2000, standards that were unfortunatelly rarely reached afterwards. The other 2 are ofcourse Double Dragon's and Atmos' debuts.
Great review Yuli.
Everyone in the world is doing something without me |
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Dot Kite
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
35
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431
Posted : Aug 26, 2005 12:34
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Oh, I love seeing and reading such kind of Reviews!
I don't think I could add something more than what Yuli stated...
The Great Unknown is an album...actually THE album! This is a CREATIVE and INNOVATIVE work! This is what I woulc classify as QUALITY music! (of course just a personal taste and point of view)
Well, Yuli, now u made me go back and search for this CD in my library....I want to hear it again...NOW!
Loads of Greetings to Ian and Frank'e
regards
Tms |
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Acidhive
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
76
Posts :
2014
Posted : Aug 26, 2005 15:43
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Well, talk about personal taste... this is one album that never manages to grab me. For some reason I can't like this album at all. Their work as Psychopod was a lot better IMO. Anyway, this is just personal taste and feeling. I'm glad a lot of people have found this again. I know what it is to relisten classic albums and suddenly getting that old feeling back. I've experienced it recently with Pigs in Space (still the best work Ofer Dikovsky ever did IMO) and with the Live album from Orichalcum, which just remains timeless in its quality to me. 
"Subconscious unravels at the point of death, and all time it has known erupts into a moment. As death extinguishes us, so we become it."
[Esoteric: Subconscious Dissolution Into The Continuum] |
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Procs
Procs
Started Topics :
4
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220
Posted : Aug 26, 2005 15:51
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one of the best albums ever.... |
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Dot Kite
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
35
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431
Posted : Aug 26, 2005 16:41
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Quote:
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On 2005-08-26 15:43, Acidhive wrote:
the Live album from Orichalcum, which just remains timeless in its quality to me.
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Dear Acidhive,
That was AMAZING ! Outstanding! Great production....
Well, I tried to see if I have with me "The Great Unknown", but unfortunately not...(I have the CD in my hometown)....and I can't find it on iTunes as well....ARRGGHHHH!!!
regards
Tms
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Glen.C (Iboga Rec)
IsraTrance Full Member
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686
Posted : Aug 26, 2005 17:12
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Word!!!!! Yuli. Damn right man! Everything you said is SO true!
Maybe THE album of our times! I remember playing in portugal and I was lucky enough to have a couple of trax on DAT and I dared to play luna bean! it was the first time I hear it loud! Christ on a bike! Blew me and everyone there away!
Then a Danish friend plays after me in the sun and drops crunchy moles... which I had know idea existed, shit I nearly cried as I groove and wiggled my arse in the sun! Fine memories. Thanks Yuli, you just brought them all flooding back!
http://www.facebook.com/GlenC.IbogaRecords
http://www.myspace.com/gleniboga
www.iboga-records.dk
Spikers & Midinoize - Lisbon Hooker (Glen C rmx) coming soon on Earhead Audio |
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Morbidelic
IsraTrance Full Member
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3074
Posted : Aug 26, 2005 18:06
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this is a prove why those days was a real psychedelic circus.
one brillant nostalgy a;bum for me
where is this 2 talent gone for sure 1 of the best albums ever.
King of jazz is masterpiece.
peace out ppl.
yuli keep the good energy.
bom!
Happy Happy,Joy Joy.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dj-Morbidelic/642401392473366 |
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Zombi
IsraTrance Senior Member
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375
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5032
Posted : Aug 26, 2005 18:22
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thats was good times indeed !! psy trance was MUSIC once...
Believe your soul ! |
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olivier
Side-A
Started Topics :
40
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1303
Posted : Aug 26, 2005 21:23
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one of the best trance album ever... pure masterpiece from the beginning 'till the end
awesome music
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Kaz
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Aug 26, 2005 22:22
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One of my favorite albums of all times, probably Koxbox's best under all guises (Koxbox, Psychopod, Saiko Pod). While their other albums were more influential (their first one in the goa scene, the second in psytrance, Headlines in full-on and their last in well... a more updated sound), this is just one of those albums that stands out as a totally different, hard to define album, that is easily recognizable as psytrance but just doesn't seem to fit under any category other than "made by Koxbox, for sure", along with Juno Reactor's Shango, Hallucinogen's The Lone Deranger and Union Jack's There Will Be No Armaggedon.
Favorites? Geomancer (one of the last tracks released with an authentic goa vibe) and King of Jazz, but even the worst track here (6 Cells in my opinion) would be the best in nearly any other album. Still remembering the (way too short and totally amazing) live act, and yes, the tracks from here worked very well.
http://www.myspace.com/Hooloovoo222 |
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A.Rosengren
Solid Snake
Started Topics :
266
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4138
Posted : Aug 27, 2005 00:27
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Quote:
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On 2005-08-26 18:22, Zombi wrote:
thats was good times indeed !! psy trance was MUSIC once...
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yeah once!
A
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full_on
IsraTrance Team
Started Topics :
279
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5475
Posted : Aug 27, 2005 01:28
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Must have classic. This is still good!  
Respect!
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...Be gentle with the earth...
...Dance like nobody's watching...
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...I don't mind not going to Heaven, as long as they've got Coffee in Hell... |
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Acidhive
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
76
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2014
Posted : Aug 27, 2005 03:46
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Quote:
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On 2005-08-27 00:27, A.Rosengren wrote:
Quote:
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On 2005-08-26 18:22, Zombi wrote:
thats was good times indeed !! psy trance was MUSIC once...
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yeah once!
Watch your words, there are people out there who still consider psytrance to be music.
A
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"Subconscious unravels at the point of death, and all time it has known erupts into a moment. As death extinguishes us, so we become it."
[Esoteric: Subconscious Dissolution Into The Continuum] |
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Anak
Anakoluth
Started Topics :
108
Posts :
2395
Posted : Aug 27, 2005 12:35
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