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Here's some reviews:
The Dublin-based two-piece Boxes recorded with Steve Albini for this album, but it's not Albini's typically straightforward production that makes Bad Blood a success. Unlike a lot of acts that experiment with odd time signatures and complex song structures, Boxes inject as much heart as head into their work. They're still man-machines, but they play with feeling. Consequently, the title track, the humorous, cyclical "Walk Man" and the punishing math-rocker "Q8S" express a kind of joie de vivre that's often lacking in the fiercely cerebral exercises whipped up by the international crowd of serious, college-educated young men who dominate this brand of guitar-driven music. Put away your calculators, boys, and enjoy. http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=4460
Boxes is a two piece angular/noise rock band based in Dublin, although I’m sure they originally hail from Offaly. ‘Bad Blood’, released on Dutch label Laterax, is their second full length album and the follow up to ‘Big Ships in the Night, Small Boats In The Morning’, their first album which saw the light of day back in August 2003. So who better to get to produce this new batch of songs other than the legendary Steve Albini, the lads having recorded in his equally legendary Electrical Audio studio in Chicago. Albini does his job but Gavin (guitars, bass and vocals) and Mark (drums and possibly vocals) really do theirs. Highlights are plentiful. ‘Rourke’ kicks things off, Mastodon-esque playing nailing the song down. ‘Name me’ is Slint with Bruce Springsteen on vocals. Well kind of. ‘Walk Man’ has an almost pop chorus decimated by spiky guitars and rhythms while ‘Same Again’ has a vocal normally found on recordings by The Ex. Surrounding these high points are turnes with an array of NoMeansNo and Shellac inspired armoury. Go get.
Unfit For Consumption Zine
The second album from this Dublin-based outfit, recorded with Steve Albini in his Electrical Audio studios in Chicago, is an 11 track album on the Laterax label. The album is a perfect blend of clever post punk sounds, of the likes of NoMeansNo, and the stop-start heavy guitar math rock sounds on Shellac - a rather superb noise from just a two piece outfit.
Road Records
66.6% of Midlands muffworshippers Boxes return - Albinified - with a second album of confounding yet catchy speed-math morsels ready to nutmeg the nation’s moshpits. Now a duo, they jizz up a couple of tracks from their first record and insert some live favourites from the past three years to make one satisfied hole. Using the latest studio wizardry the Alb has somehow reinstated the missing member too, so it’s titillating time-sigs, geometric guitar, and berblexing bassbizness as usual. They even throw in some stern vocals but you can’t help thinking that because they’re concentrating so damn hard they forgot to sing on half the tracks. Well worth risking a transfusion. 86%
Mongrel Magazine
Minimalistic and square, claustrophobic and complex. Boxes are two guys from Dublin and Boxes are a rock band. Boxes sound like migraine: painful, reduced and intense. Edgy riffs on top of complicated rhythms, but yet: punk without prog. A reverby voice ??'s and barks. It's not pleasant, but it doesn't want to be pleasant. Bad Blood is already the second album and was recorded by Steve Albini himself in his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago. This, and the fact that the Boxes have already accompanied old axes like Nomenasno and Dinosaur Jr., one can interpret as a proof of potential. But Boxes really don't make it easy on you to like them. Anyway Bod Blood sounds like the band is playing in your living room. And the songs are edgy, against average listing abilities (..or something). Music for bad days, grinding teeth and a fist in your pocket. Music for days on which one doesn't want to feel better.
http://www.onetake.de/Magazin/index.php?site=6&content=486&active=3
You can buy it here: http://www.cargorecords.co.uk/release_zoom.php?item=3286 or in Road Records.
Thanks.
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