Mickey Hart’s Mystery Box is an album by former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. It was released on CD and cassette by Rykodisc Records on June 11, 1996. The album combines Hart’s percussion-based world music with the vocal harmonies of the British singing sextet the Mint Juleps. Robert Hunter wrote the lyrics for all the songs.The song “Only the Strange Remain” was later performed live by the Other Ones, and appears on their album The Strange Remain.
The bombastic "John Cage Is Dead" is a masterful amalgam of percussive-heavy world beats in an undulating modern context.
Lindsay Planer
AllMusic
Mystery Box'' pulses with life and zings with harmonious energy. Should it get any airplay, it will blow away TLC or any of the commercially disposable female vocal groups of the day.
Roger Catlin
Hartford Courant
What ensues is an album with more of a rhythm and blues feel than many Hart fans may be accustomed, but much like Robbie Robertson's excellent, self-titled release from 1987, persistence will pay off with tremendous rewards.