Box Juice's Sunrise Ave is a tropical cocktail of the same ilk as Kiwi greats Katchafire; reggae that remains true to its Jamaican roots with a subtle hint of South Pacific flavour. It's peaceful music for peace. True to the essence of the Rastafarian movement. Good vibes. The kind of music that goes good with warm booze and a summer barbecue. It caters for moments of fierce conversation, mass debate and those drunken introspective moments when you become that weird guy sitting alone on the deck chair on someone else's veranda nodding to the music and understanding the essence of it all.
It's music you have to hear live. It's music you need to feel and rock to. Something to stand at the bar of a crowded pub gig and pretend to mouth the words to. Hearing such euphoric organic music on the sterile CD medium gives it a restrained feel, like the caged lion of Zion. It begs to be released, feeding of the swaying crowd, the rocking band, and that old couple that insist on slow dancing in everyone's way.
Don't let the above descriptions of the wonders of live performance dissuade you. The music still hits you in all the right places. It all begins with an epic cathartic breakdown of the kind you'd expect to finish a worthy album with, not the kind of thing you'd expect to see in a place like this. At the peak of the crescendo the first track "This Jah Music" begins, making a bold statement about what you're too expect over the next half an hour and establishing the good-times buzz that remains long after the music ends.
There was an inference in a NZ Musician review that Box Juice have perfected the reggae genre and that they're official masters of their art. Now to become masters of the hearts of New Zealand they must take their art that extra step further and develop their own unique style within the bounds of their genre. My response... why? The musicians that comprise Box Juice are plainly doing what they love and they're good at it. They have their message to spread, they have they're music to spread it. They're well on their way to where they're going just being who they are.
Box Juice is a talented Auckland band that offers it's audience a night of explosive reggae, featuring classic tunes from the likes of Bob Marley and Katchafire, and original songs from their latest album 'Sunrise Ave'.