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MIGHTY REDOX ‘On The Move’ (145) In an age of haircut bands and Arctic Monkeys-coattail-chasing, it’s sometimes good to remember that bands like Redox are out there, oblivious to such fashion whimsies. In fact, other than singer Sue Smith’s occasional worrying tendency to sing like Smeegle out of Lord Of The Rings, most of the past 30 years seem to have passed them by. While Redox’s debut album, ‘Bullaburra’ stopped in at every musical port from north African folk to Cajun dance, ‘On The Move’, is rather more parochial, preferring to jam it out in southern-fried roadhouse funkblues style, occasionally succumbing to a spiked drink and heading spaceward, as on ‘Dan Dakker’, with its oddly chanted vocals, or ‘MTV’, with Phil Freizinger’s treated flute lead and heroically awful attempt at rapping. ‘Dancing Days’, meanwhile, takes a misty-eyed trip back to 50s prom night rock’n’roll but ends up sounding rather more like ‘Tiger Feet’ by Mud. Paradoxically, what we like most about Redox is when they’re at their most irritating: when Sue gets all witchy, like a ham actor from an old 50s mediaeval b-movie and goes off on her druid gothic apocalyptic poetry thing, as on ‘Eternity’. It borders on toe-curling on the one hand and reminds us horribly of Mother Gong, but equally it’s so silly there’s no other bugger out there willing to do it, which means it’s about eleventy-six times better than The Courteeners or Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong or whichever heap of fifteenth-rate Libertines rip off crap the music industry is trying to hoist on us this month. So hats off to the hippies – the day they start caring what everyone else thinks will be a sad day indeed. |
'ON THE MOVE ' CD Review Nightshift November 2007 |
THE REDOX CD LAUNCH PARTY
BACKROOM @ THE BULLY Wayhey!! Our old mates The Mighty Redox decide to throw a party on a Wednesday night at The Bully to launch their new CD 'On The Move'. Are they mad??? Of course they bloody are. But then we wouldn't have 'em any other way. Redox have always provided have a pint, have a knees up, good old fucking good time music, and tonight was absolutely no exception. After a suitably lower key warm up from some very talented friends, plus a short but typically lively set from Pete Fryer and guests, Redox made the night their own with their usual mix of big guitar, big bass, big drums and BIG voice from the lovely Sue. From new stuff on the album to old favourites, there always seems to be a satisfyingly warm familiarity about a Redox gig, like a faithful old hound who, even when he pisses up your leg, you just know he does it with love and affection. The guys (and gal!) were just brilliant - as good as I've seen in a long time. If you can't dance to Redox, you ain't got no feet! The album? Well, if you have EVER seen Redox play, you really HAVE to own the album. You owe it to your grandkids - they deserve a hell of a lot more than David Gray...... |
'ON THE MOVE' CD Launch Gig Review on Skittle Alley website www.skittlealley.110mb.com |
17. REDOX: ‘Bullaburra’ Lost somewhere between a 1970s hippy festival and an acid-fuelled barn dance, Redox provide one of the year’s strangest but most unabashed dance tracks. Part gabba-lite, part hoe-down, part madcap nursery rhyme, it’s what might have happened if Gong had jammed with The Wiggles after a pot of mushroom tea, and it turns adults and children alike into gurning loons. |
Best of the Year (Top 20) Nightshift December 2005 |
Redox
Two of the band originally came from Reading and two from Oxford. From those two locations, the name and the band Redox was formed. Playing all original material of a "swamp rock" genre, they give bands like "Talking Heads" a run for their money. Consumate professional rockers! Redox gave a wonderful set once again, this band seems to pull it out and give their best performance at every gig. Every time I have seen Redox, I have had a fantastic night and this, their second showing at the charity gig, was no exception. Rock on. Keep it Live. Keep it Real. Keep it Redox. We love you. |
Charity Gig at the Crawley Inn September 2005 Review on www.charitygig.co.uk |
REDOX ‘Bullaburra’ (Own Label) Redox’s debut album lands on the doormat the same day Glastonbury is almost washed into the sea by torrential storms. Appropriate really, since they’re exactly the sort of band you might expect to stumble across while a little worse for wear at 3 in the morning, in some forgotten corner of the Green Field. Formed by Phil Freizinger and Sue Smith, the couple behind Klub Kakofanney and veterans, we suspect, of a great many festivals and magic mushroom trips over the years, Redox pack in all the ingredients of a lost-in-space-and-time hippy band: from Phil’s playful flute excursions on ‘Love Is There’, to Sue’s unearthly Mother Gong-like whooping and shrieking on the album’s title track; from the cod-reggae grooves of ‘Free’ to the world funk rhythms that underpin much of the album, and a good few wistful guitar solos besides. As such the album can be either gently uplifting in an uncaringly summery way, or nail-bitingly spiritual in a pagan earth mother manner. Certainly the lyrical content of songs like ‘Blood’ and ‘Free’ tend toward the latter, and only the most stoned of 70s throwbacks could endure the loose jam session that is ‘Feeling’s Right’, but Redox can then hit you with a cracker like ‘Bullabura itself: part barn dance hoedown, part ska skank, part space rock ritual with a nagging chorus that’s utterly infectious. A crazy little pop song; here’s where the party should really begin. Redox’s most endearing feature is their unselfconscious retro vibe and shameless pillaging of every style and period of music to suit their holistic view – from Canned Heat to Ozric Tentacles via a Jamaican beach party. Just remember to pack a little mind-altering something for moral support. |
CD Review Nightshift August 2005 |
Known variously as Oxford's leading swamp rock band, and more recently under the self-invented category 'psycho eclectic rock', Redox are a very welcome fixture on the Oxford music scene. They have recently released the brilliant album 'Bullaburra' - I defy you not to join in with their infectious refrains and marvel at their compelling musicianship. Not only excellent musicians in their own right (you'll see most of the members also cropping up in other acts over the weekend) but Phil and Sue are organisers of Klub Kakofanney, a top venue for promoting rising rock talent in the Oxford area. They'll definitely give us a classy close to Saturday's stellar acts. |
WittStock Festival Festival Programme August 2005 |
The weather, unbelievably, is even more oppressively hot than Saturday and people are visibly wilting. In such surroundings Redox can only shine, sounding, like they do, like a band ripped straight from an early-1970s hippy happening, taking in psychedelic folk and world funk along the way. |
Charlbury Festival OxfordBands.com June 2005 |
Redox bring some cohesion back to the proceedings. Going in for groove-led jams, funky reggae skanks and an upbeat party festival vibe, you feel they could have slipped through a timewarp, landing here from a muddy field in 1972, still convinced Jethro Tull are the here and now, but it's that uncaring attitude towards current trends that's so endearing and their cowpunk finale, where The Men They Couldn't Hang collide with the 60's hippy dream is a belter. |
The Bullingdon
Nightshift April 2005 |
Despite a near namesake, Redox is NOT a relaxing bath - more like an invigorating swamprock cold shower! In case you don't know, these half punk/half hippy staples of Oxford music play psych blues workouts of pure energy. It's the kicking rhythm section; it's the soaring FX-laden guitar of Phil Friar; it's the frankly insane vocals of Sue Smith (=Grace Slick + Janis Jolin + Ari Up). As the organizers, they're happy to step in tonight after a cancellation…and we're happy too. They even play two new songs. They sound like the old songs, but who cares? |
Klub Kakofanney BBC- Oxford Music July 2004 |
Redox were almost too good to write anything about-words can't really do their set justice. They hit us all with a faultless collection of their own material, played and sung to perfection. Some bands spend months in a recording studio trying to achieve what Redox gave us live in real time! Maximum praise and respect! We are not worthy! |
Charity Gig at the Crawley Inn September 2004 Review on www.charitygig.co.uk |
The real high point though is Redox. Things start inauspiciously but pick up swiftly by the second tune, a real swamp rocker, like a genteel version of the Cramps. Klub Kakofanney stalwart Sue Smith's voice is superb - though her occasional ear-splitting screams cause a certain amount of consternation, while the band pick over a myriad of styles 'til the bones are clean. The set reaches a climax with 'War', a song that veers as close to a full-on country hoedown without physically donning a cowboy hat and provokes a spontaneous outbreak of line-dancing. A slightly surreal accompaniment for one of the very best party bands in Oxford. |
Zodiac Nightshift |
t's pretty hard to dislike Phil and Sue, the kakofaneers, because they tirelessly promote music with an infectious enthusiasm. Still, Redox, their occasional hippy-punk-blues-folk band, can easily stand on its own merits, thank you. Tonight the storming phased guitar howls, the psychedelic projections, the skintight drumming (from Tim Turan, no less) and the sense of barely controlled chaos inspire thoughts of what Warhol's Exploding Inevitable would have been like if it were invented in a barn in Wantage. They even boast that rarest of beasts, a decent didgeridoo player. Support them because Redox is a local treasure and what's more they aren't surrounded by gawking tourists for five months of the year. |
Klub Kakofanney Nightshift 2003 |