Cozmic Box
Flame of Truth
(2009 - Self release - USA)
Here’s another MySpace success story of two musicians, one of them from Belfast, Ireland (Jed McConkey), the other (John Hohnstein) from Colorado, USA, meeting and getting together on a music project that really deserves attention. Just one of the things I like about their debut release “Flame of Truth” is how the first listen is totally unpredictable. This is truly a roller coaster ride of styles and a spread of generations in sound. Cozmic Box is Jed on guitar and vocals and John on a large variety of keyboards. There is no shortage of sound or ideas.
The music encompasses several styles but they like the term “progressive tranceadelic”, which is noteworthy, but I’d go quite a bit further than that since the songs have a broad pallet like Alan Parsons Project, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Future Sound of London, Ten Years After, Mike Oldfield, with a heavyweight soulful classic pop genre tune or two. Although the band is progressive, I brag about their ability to write a great pop song and fuse it in to their other songs. Several of these compositions are radio friendly, which is no crime whatsoever. In fact, it’s hard to write songs of this statue that stand up to such a wide audience. Good on them.
The subject matter varies greatly with some heavy lyrics and some instrumentals. After just one listen you realize you have a recording of hard work, great collaboration, and dedication of perfectionists. This disc brings back the word meaningful! Topics of love, war, UFO, and trip songs all placed for your listening pleasure. To top it off, you have a beautiful guest appearance by another superb vocalist named Hetty Lane, who sings on songs “Flame of Truth’ (track 2) and ‘Dreaming of You’ (track 7). It seems at first that the two artists who comprise Cozmic Box are opposites, but the chemistry works like a charm. All musicians here are deeply into their craft.
There is nothing weak about this fine CD. You can buy this at www.cdbaby.com And a few other places so give it a listen. It’s more than worth the time.
Reviewed by Lee Henderson on September 4th, 2012
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