Boxcar is an Australian Sydney-based synth pop and techno band. Formed in the mid-1980s in Brisbane by main songwriter, guitarist and vocalist David Smith, he was soon joined by keyboardists Brett Mitchell and Carol Rohde and somewhat later by drummer-percussionist Crispin Trist. They initially released several cassette-only releases including an album, P.C.M., and their early material had an industrial music sensibility heavily influenced by Cabaret Voltaire and Severed Heads. They were also notable for playing many live shows in the Brisbane area and around the country, including shows where they performed wearing gas masks. Performing electronic music live was a difficult feat given the preference in Australian live venues for guitar-driven pub rock and they would sometimes be jeered by members of the crowd. Sydney Harbour looking south from the vicinity of the Sydney Harbour Bridge towards the CBD skyline; the Opera House is visible in the background on the left. ... Synth pop is a style of popular music in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. ... Techno is a form of electronic music that emerged in the mid-1980s and primarily refers to a particular style developed in and around Detroit and subsequently adopted by European producers. ... // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... Brisbane by night Brisbane is the capital city of the state of Queensland, Australia. ... Industrial music is a loose term for a number of different styles of electronic and experimental music. ... Cabaret Voltaire is a post-punk industrial and electronica band from Sheffield, England consisting of Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson (who was also a founding member of the Hafler Trio). ... Severed Heads is an Australian electronic music group based and founded in Sydney in 1979 (see 1979 in music) as Mr. ... A gas mask is a mask worn on the face to protect the body from airborne pollutants and toxic materials. ... Pub rock is a style of Australian rock and roll popular throughout the 1970s and 1980s and still influencing contemporary Australian music today. ...

They rose to prominence after releasing the single "Freemason (You Broke The Promise)" in 1988 after signing with Volition Records, and hit number 8 in the United States Billboard dance music chart. Initially criticised in the local press for being derivative of New Order they nevertheless built a local following, despite a lack of commercial radio airplay for electronic music. "Freemason" was soon followed by the singles "Insect" (remixed by noted producer Arthur Baker) and "Gas Stop/Who Do You Think You Are?" (remixed by Francois Kevorkian) (both of which also charted in the US but had little local impact) and by their formal debut album Vertigo on Volition in 1990. 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Volition Records was an Australian record label specialising in electronic music styles such as house, techno, synthpop and trance. ... Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry. ... New Order, 2005 Promotional shot New Order are an English electronic dance/rock crossover group, which formed in 1980 from Joy Division following the suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis. ... Arthur Baker (Born April 22, 1955, Boston, Massachussets, USA) is a record producer and DJ best known for his work with hip-hop artists like Afrika Bambaataa, and the British group New Order. ... François Kevorkian, alias François K, (born January 10, 1954) is a French-born US DJ, remixer, producer and record label owner. ... 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Vertigo was well received by critics who noted the production was considerably more sophisticated than most electronic music produced in Australia to that point, due in large part to producer Robert Racic, who had also worked with Severed Heads and other Volition artists such as Single Gun Theory. Overall, Vertigo had a fairly pop feel, however the band also included more experimental instrumentals on the album such as "Comet" (also on the B-side of the "Freemason" single) and "Lelore" (featuring an eerie wailing as the centrepiece "vocal", it was released as a single in its own right). A round of live dates and tours followed including supports for New Order, Depeche Mode and Erasure. Robert Racic (c. ... Severed Heads is an Australian electronic music group based and founded in Sydney in 1979 (see 1979 in music) as Mr. ... Single Gun Theory is an Australian band made up of Jacqui Hunt (vocals), Pete Rivett-Carnac, and Kath Power. ... In recorded music, the terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 7 inch vinyl records on which singles have been released since the 1950s. ... Depeche Mode was originally founded in 1980 as a synth pop band in the town of Basildon, England. ... Erasure is a British synth pop duo and one of the most popular, durable and influential names in the genre. ...

Soon after the release of Vertigo, Rohde and Trist left Boxcar and the band relocated from Brisbane to Sydney and added keyboardist Stewart Lawler. A remix album Revision with reworkings of Vertigo tracks by various local producers, including Tom Ellard from Severed Heads, was released in 1992, but it was another two years until the followup album Algorhythm was released in Australia in 1994. Algorhythm was a notably more trance and house-influenced effort than the synth-pop of Vertigo and spawned the singles "Universal Hymn", "What Are You So Happy About?" (featured on the soundtrack to the 1996 film Love and Other Catastrophes) and "People Get High". The album took almost another two full years until it was released in the United Kingdom and Europe in 1996 on Pulse-8. Although not officially defunct, it was around about 1997 that Boxcar started to play fewer live dates and as of 2005 no new output has been released. Thomas Ellard, known as Tom Ellard (born 1962) is an electronic musician and core of the group Severed Heads and creator and director of sevcom. ... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Trance music is a subgenre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s. ... House music refers to a collection of styles of electronic dance music, the earliest forms beginning in the early- to mid- 1980s. ... Generally speaking, the term soundtrack refers to the recorded sound in a motion picture. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Official website