Strangely enough, 2009 has been interesting for Mike Patto. His 1970s prog rock band called (easily enough) Patto saw their track "The Man" used in trailers for the creepy and uncomfortable film OBSERVE AND REPORT. And one of his earlier band, Timbox's popular singles has been repurposed into a surprising, and unneccessary radio hit by the European rappers Madcon. Granted, that song is "Beggin'" which Timebox themselves repurposed from the original outing by the Four Seasons - but the big difference here is that Timebox, as far as I'm concerned, vastly improved the original, whereas Madcon kind of rubbed stink all over it.
For a pretty solid part of 2007 and 2008 I couldn't stop playing Timebox's version of the song. I played it when I was getting ready to go out at night, I put it on mix CDs, iPod playlists, and I DJ'ed it relentlessly every time I'd fill in working behind the bar. The song itself is great - nearly a perfect slice of frenetic melody, with a beat that no doubt could have incited the Northern Soul followers to
knock the roof of the Wigan Casino back in the day (which was probably a Saturday). However, what Timebox really brings to the table here is the addition of a really amazing, pulsing vibraphone solo. Band member Ollie Halsall, who was also an incredibly skilled guitar player, rolled out the vibes in several Timebox originals as well as in this memorable cover, and it became a really unique signature in the band's sound.
Unfortunately, as is all too often the tale of woe in the music world, Decca Deram looked upon Timebox as a pop band, rather than the pre-prog/ heavy-psych/jazz-rock band that they were trying to evolve into. As a result, many of their harder and more experimental songs were left unreleased in favor of novelties like "Baked Jam Roll in Your Eye" (recorded as a lark when the boys were three sheets to the wind) and instrumentals like (the still pretty good) "Soul Sauce." Some critics, looking back, have made mention that Timebox might have been one of the first bands to present Jazz in a Rock context. This fact is supported by the band's initial discovery by Decca, playing the Windsor Jazz Festival in August of 1967.
It's hard to say what Timebox would have become if left to their own devices, but all but one member eventually made their way over to Patto, so perhaps that's our best answer. As it is, the guys of Timbox still left behind a handful of great tunes, and a bucketful of songs with great potential.
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