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Koxbox - U-Turn


abasio

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Okey, I have listened to this album enough now, to make have an honest opinion about it. This is one of the best full on releases I have heard this year. It is also one of the best Techno releases this year. Furthermore, its the best trance album released this year. I love every single track on it. Its not Koxbox oldschool style, but you can hear Frank in it.... Frank is still the man for me!

 

You hear those squelchy wet acid sounds?! Thats KOXBOX right there for you... Its The signature. I love his new sound! So, did I say that I think its the best Psychedelic release this year as well?! No I guess not.

 

I will do a track by track review later maybe, but for now, its simply going to be

 

11/10 the extra point for being an old man with long hair showing the kids how to fucking play ball! :D

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I played 'KoxBox - Crazy' last in my set on the weekend. Went straight to the dance floor to hear it on the 11,000 watt KV2 system and holy crap it sounded good!!!

 

Artifakt played 'No More Ghosts' later in the night too :D

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okay i've listened through the album twice now...

it is not breathtaking or super-innovative.

but its certainly good! really good.. maybe it'll even grow better with time..

fullon?

well it didnt have any of those irritating elements that make me "hate" fullon. so i dont know what you're talking about! :P

 

 

edit: btw, if frank released something very similar to older works there would still be some to criticise him (i think) for being stuck up and rehashing old ideas and styles, or whatever.

if you try to be as objective as can be, you'll see this album for what its actually worth?

i.e. not revolutionary, but not generic crap either!

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no more ghosts I have decided is my favourite track....

 

not necessarily groundbreaking... but everything on it seems to be excellent in its field of direction!

 

I think I would discribe this as a fusion of techtrance with fullon (not the cheesy fullon)

I keep listening to it and loving it!

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Heard he is very good as a dj. Is it true and what kind of music does he spin?

648031[/snapback]

Yes, it's true. I think he is an awesome DJ. He played a DJ set for about 2 hours where he played all sorts of different stuff. Played some Finnish stuff. Then he played a 1 hour live set of his own material. 3 hours of pure bliss!

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Ummm, I have very strange feeling about this album. I can't stand coz they put the full on bassline but some tracks seem rather psychedelic. I am not at all impressed with this release as everyone else and even though it has some cyber elements and psy sounds, it is still very dissapointing stuff from Koxbox crew... 5/10 :(:unsure:

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the question is, would you all rate it this highly if it weren't Koxbox?

648546[/snapback]

hmm...actually I think it would be the opposite...

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He played a DJ set for about 2 hours where he played all sorts of different stuff.

648487[/snapback]

That's more than cool. Would love to listen to it :) . Thanks and sorry for the off-topics. On topic:I have heard only samples but am waiting to get this, seems nice.

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I really like it. It's dark without too much heaviness. It is still intelligent, and very deep in layers that is of musical compostion. Fun and uplifiting, but with dark vibes.

 

What a great work of music.

I listened to it at least 6 times in a row.

And it doesn't get old.

 

:D

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It's a good album, I really liked it even if it's not my favourite style.

651761[/snapback]

Hm? Whats more your favorite style then?

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I really like it. It's dark without too much heaviness. It is still intelligent, and very deep in layers that is of musical compostion. Fun and uplifiting, but with dark vibes.

 

What a great work of music.

I listened to it at least 6 times in a row.

And it doesn't get old.

 

:D

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Compared to the other Koxbox albums this lacks in diversity, imagination and evolution.

 

Still, I think its a good compilation of tracks, but it does not compare favourably to the earlier koxbox albums, at least not to me.

 

For me, the best Koxbox albums are "Forever After" and "The Great Unknown", those are true classics, someting "U-Turn" will never be.

 

- Krell

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Compared to the other Koxbox albums this lacks in diversity, imagination and evolution.

 

Still, I think its a good compilation of tracks, but it does not compare favourably to the earlier koxbox albums, at least not to me.

 

For me, the best Koxbox albums are "Forever After" and "The Great Unknown", those are true classics, someting "U-Turn" will never be.

 

- Krell

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you got to be kidding me! ;)

 

this album goes from full-on to psy-techno to psy-progrssive. can it get more diverse than that? the old albums (especially Dragon Tales & Headlines EP, which are my favourites BTW) were much more homogenic with re-used sounds & ideas. this one on the other hand, thanks to a lot of people involved, sounds more like compilation (and a very good one at that) than an album... that's why it's fun as hell to listen through all those moods and styles all at one CD!

 

so, if there's anything missing to that album, it's definitely NOT the diversity

 

all IMO of course :)

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Acid Drome is the best they've done since 1997!

 

Haven't heard the Saikopod album though...

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funny acid drome is the only track I dislike on this album, maybe I should give it another chance!

 

Other than that, its a great album... I really like the first tracks, but just got it back from a friend and need to listen some more to find some favorites here!

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this album goes from full-on to psy-techno to psy-progrssive. can it get more diverse than that? the old albums (especially Dragon Tales & Headlines EP, which are my favourites BTW) were much more homogenic with re-used sounds & ideas. this one on the other hand, thanks to a lot of people involved, sounds more like compilation (and a very good one at that) than an album... that's why it's fun as hell to listen through all those moods and styles all at one CD!

 

I totally agree. I've listened to this CD a few times now, and well I think its really, really good. I was unable to get much into Dragon Tales and The Great Unknown, but love every track on this release.

 

It seems very fresh to me, production is excellent, a definite mind-trip over headphones. The "squelchy acid sounds" someone else mentioned, brilliant. It feels like a lot of thought went into each track.

 

KoxBox gained a new fan today. Happy I picked this one up.

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  • 1 month later...

Compared to the other Koxbox albums this lacks in diversity, imagination and evolution.

 

Still, I think its a good compilation of tracks, but it does not compare favourably to the earlier koxbox albums, at least not to me.

 

For me, the best Koxbox albums are "Forever After" and "The Great Unknown", those are true classics, someting "U-Turn" will never be.

This is the worst album "review" I have ever had the (mis)fortune to read :lol: !!!

 

OK, I reall am not going to do a track by track analisys here as I feel that another user, Death Posture to be precise, did a perfect one on page two, and I urge everybody who is not sure whether to buy this album or not to read his review; it's pretty fair and accurately written. So I will drop a few comments on the album as a whole thing...

 

As Krell so idiotically pointed out above, if this album lacks diversity, imagination and evolution, then Noam Chomsky should in his own provocative kind of way reflect upon those words meaning. This album ranges in style from tech trance, progressive trance (mixed with some dark and twisted sounds), old school acid techno, pure psy trance (yup! It still isn't dead), with a glimpse of the good old and always cherished goa trance! And the best part is that mr. Frank Kiehn Madsen excells in everything he does here: the tracks with the full on sound are, IMO, the finest full on inspired tracks I've heard since the first Astrix album. And even though I stated in numerous reviews that I tend to stay as far away as possible from the whole tech trance thing (matter of fact, I heavily dislike even the oftenly highly praised projects like The Delta or X Dreams more recent outputs), on U Turn, I am damn amazed how well crafted these tracks are! And the last three tracks produced with the ex Koxbox member, Ian Ion, are simply amazing. "Acid Drome" is such an amazing throwback to the early acid techno days of this legendary trance act, but it still has a crazy modern sound.

But what impresses me the most about this album is the 'psychedelia' effect here! I mean, this is without overexaggerating, a front to back psy (in the term's true spirit) trance album! This actually is psychedelic trance music which goes beyond just words... I heard some of these tracks on a party already, and they are floor devastators. I've listened to this album at home quite a few times, and it amazed me every time. And no, this does not have melodies in the Suntrip Records fashion, so all the users who wrote and complained about the album not bein melodic... Duh!!! It wasn't supposed to be, for this is psy trance as god allmighty intended it to be: harsh, full of mind stabbing, psychedelic, deviant effects, dark atmospheres (not the dark psy type feelings), highly dancable bass kicks, twisted noises and acidic synths. I don't know what do y'all think, but if that doesn't do it for you, few releases will.

 

Of coarse, there is always the fact the we each have our own personal taste, so it makes no sense pointing fingers if somebody does not find this album a strong release. I do. And I don't mind people bashing it and labelling it as trash after 3 listens. It's their loss. But I like this album a lot. Why? Because I really appreciate the album's amazing diversity during the course of only 9 tracks. I cannot remember right now when was the last time I heard so many styles fused together in such a skillful manner, on one single circular piece of plastic. And the guest stars appearing on the album are all legends... Which does not mean necessarily that their contributions to the tracks make 'em instantly worth gold, but in this album's case, that makes it more or less true. Then it's this album's unique way of drawing influences and inspirations from various sources of the present and of the past, and nicely blending them into one collage of music which could easily set standards for the future!

 

Now a thought about the last pathetic remark (god, I gotta give him credit for fitting so many of those in only three lines :lol: !!!) of the infamous Krell user. Now, the last Koxbox release came out in 1999, while the last release as Saiko-Pod (Frank'e and Ian Ion) alter ego project release dropped in 2002, considering I'm not counting the Phuture Remixes album as a proper release. And something had to change (sound wise of course). And thank god it did. One reason why I adore Koxbox is I guess the same reason why I adore X Dream (well, at least I did prior to the Irritant album), and that is their constant pursue of originality. U Turn does not even attempt to sound like Forever After or Dragon Tales. Which is good. Those two albums are old school classics on a level of its own. And it would have been dumb from Frank to mess around with the untouchable. He decided to, rather then earning his bucks by exploiting and abusing his old releases, to really put forth the effort and surprise his fans with brand new, highly original music! I mean, no crap this does not sound like the old Koxbox albums, like that, if nothing else, I don't have the feeling that I wasted the last ten years of my life likng an artist who kept on giving me the same album time after time. Get it? On its own, this album can take on any psy trance release of the last couple of years, without compromising its place as a more than decent continuation of the fantastic Koxbox legacy. Highly recommended!

And how can anybody, like Krell :lol: , state that this album will never be a classic after less than half a year since its release??? Man, you have got to be on some other s**t. Get your act together, and make sure to LISTEN to albums before sharing your dull opinions. I am in no way calling this a classic, and nobody can, for no release in music's history snatched that title after only a few months of being on the market. But an excellent album, yes. A damn excellent album! Top notch work here!!!

 

Not sticking to the same old same old + never rehashing the old just to cash in your formula + not recycling generic, overlyused sounds + diversity = U Turn

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