Algorhythm (album)
| Boxcar | |
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| Origin | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
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| Website | boxcar |
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Boxcar were an Australian electronic dance pop group formed in Brisbane in 1986. Their founding mainstay was David Smith on vocals, guitar and keyboards. Three of their singles appeared on the Billboard dance chart top 20, "Freemason (You Broke the Promise)" (1988, No. 8), "Insect" (1990, No. 20) and "Gas Stop (Who Do You Think You Are?)" (1990, No. 8). They released two albums on Volition Records/Sony Music Australia, Vertigo (1990) and Algorhythm (1994), before disbanding in 1997. They briefly reformed in 2010 and in 2014.
Boxcar were an Australian electronic dance pop band. They formed in 1986 in Brisbane by Carol Rohde on vocals and keyboards (ex-Ironing Music) and David Smith on vocals, guitar and keyboards. They were soon joined by keyboardist, Brett Mitchell, and somewhat later by drummer-percussionist Crispin Trist.
Boxcar independently issued cassette-only material including an album, P.C.M.. Their early work sounded similar to contemporaries, Cabaret Voltaire and Severed Heads. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, explained "the intention was to combine noise with a beat, technology with a decent song."AllMusic's Michael Sutton felt they "sounded more like New Order [the similarity] is mainly in the weary vocals of [Smith], which easily recalls Bernard Sumner's melancholic tone."
Boxcar played live shows in the Brisbane area and then other capitals; at gigs they wore 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. McFarlane observed "[they] made little headway, mostly due to a general lack of interest in electronic dance-pop within the rock milieu, rather than any lack of talent on the musicians' part."
They signed with Volition Records/Sony Music Australia to release a single, "Freemason (You Broke the Promise)", in November 1988. When issued in the United States via Arista Records/Nettwerk Records in the following year, it hit No. 8 on the Billboard dance 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. They followed with two more singles, which also appeared on the Billboard dance chart: "Insect" (remixed by noted producer Arthur Baker) at No. 20 and "Gas Stop (Who Do You Think You Are?)" (remixed by Francois Kevorkian) at No. 8. In Australia, "Gas Stop" peaked at No. 82 on the ARIA singles chart.
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