Well, it happened!

We played our first gig in a number of years at The Powerhouse Museum in Brisbane, Australia
on the 6th of September. Boxcar headlined on a bill also featuring our friends and former label mates
Vision Four 5 to launch the extremely impressive BNE book/usb project which chronicles 35
years of independent electronic music from Brisbane.

This current Boxcar lineup is a great blend of original and new members. From left to right in the pics.
Alison Cole on keys & programming laid down some serious melody & boogie.
Dave Smith (original member) on guitar, bass, keys and grumpy face (I did smile now and then, I swear!)
David Corazza (original member) on keys, mix and dubs (and in Trevor Horn mode) and
James Wingrove who collaborated on both the music and created/performed our spectacular visual show.

The audience reaction was fantastic and very heartening. Thankyou BrisVegas!

We're hoping to play some more shows (and an even longer set) in the near future in other states.
We welcome any contact from promoters, or in fact anyone who might be able to assist in making that happen!

The BNE book and audio USB is a superb package.
It features three previously unreleased Boxcar tracks but there is also a goldmine
of great music from other artists.

ORDER THE BNE BOOK/USB HERE

* photos & video courtesy of Jonathan Champ

We have a few very exciting announcements coming up in the next week or two ..somewhat related to these pictured tapes, which we were only very recently re-united with and are now being digitally transferred. Can you imagine how weird it feels to know your music, recorded before the internet existed, now needs to be baked in an oven for a week so it doesn't fall off onto the tape machine?

'What's that guvna?' I hear you say, 'didn't you have all those sounds in your computers and whatnot?'.
Well no, only small bits and pieces after a devastating data robbery which took place the early 'noughties'...

The plot thickens, buy me a beer some time and I'll tell you about it.

Progress on Vertigo-X and Algorhythm-X have stalled just for a moment (it will happen!) while we prepare for a special event, and two upcoming exclusive releases.

The first will be a digital-only download, which will be available for one month only.
Members will get a discount code (better sign up if you haven't right?).
The second will be a custom data usb-only release (featuring some remastered PCM tracks, amongst other things) in a once-only very limited run, available for one night only.

There'll be more info right here…soon.

BNE, the definitive guide to the Brisbane electronic scene is now available for pre-order.

The coffee table book and usb are stunningly beautiful. If you'd like to know a bit more about the environment and times Boxcar came from, and hear some of our unreleased tunes - along with lots of other electronic artists - this package makes hours of fascinating reading and listening. Trans-com have done a superb job putting this project together.

Hello again, if you've been following us on Soundcloud, you'll have noticed some of the Algo-X tracks
appearing with increasing frequency...not too far away now!

If you have the required skills, and are interested in remixing an Algorhythm track for inclusion with the release please contact us over here...and we can chat.

Here's a small free gift for members, partly as an apology for the delays in the 'X' releases but also because I'm trying to clear the decks to focus on some new tracks.

We recorded this 4-track live-to-air on Sydney station JJJ, sometime around the Algorhythm release date.I've had to edit and clean it up a little bit...oh and yes, the human beings are making mistakes.

Tracklist as follows :

1. Spirit
2. Universal Hymn
3. What Are You So Happy About?
4. Olive

Click the image or go here to login and download the file BLATWTJ.zip

Please follow us on Twitter and Soundcloud, you'll get a few surprises in the coming months…

Hello Boxcarians, Boxcarites, Boxcaribians etc, etc...

I've been juggling quite a few chairs here, so sincere apologies for the complete absence from the site.
However, if you've been following us on Twitter and Soundcloud, you would have witnessed 'proof of life' ;-)
For the immediate future, that's probably the best way of finding out about progress..

Both Algorhythm-X and Vertigo-X are definitely still in production..frankly it's turned out to be more work than first anticipated.
Again, best to keep an ear to Soundcloud and an eye on the tweets.

Also, a retrospective of electronic music from Brisbane, BNE, is due to be released this year by the Transcomm label. We've contributed three previously unreleased tracks which are as follows...

Brainshot (from the digital masters of the PCM cassette)

Vertigo (Unreleased Sony Studios Demo)

Insect (Unreleased Robert Racic Mix)

You can read more about the project here...

Many thanks go to David Corazza (original member) who kept the masters safe!
Stay tuned friends (the shop is about to have some shelves filled)

...and thanks for your emails and comments!

Dave S.

Bulb was a project I did with Cameron Miller just after we completed Algorhythm. Cameron was a good friend and essentially a fourth member of Boxcar. We met Cameron very early on (Vertigo era) when he was in a band with Brett Mitchell (later in Boxcar) called (i think) Helium. There were very few people in Brisbane making electronic music at the time and they had a Casio sampler and drum machine (woo!). Eventually we all ended up in Sydney by the time Algorhythm was started.

Bulb had only one official release - on Thunk/Think Records' Environments ambient compilation..

In fact, we did a number of tracks, and had an EP or album in mind..Volition put us in the studio with engineer Adrian Bolland - I'll be sharing those other tracks soon. We did one live-to-air on radio JJJ of the two tracks on Environments - more in the shape that we wrote them - and even supported Boxcar once.

It's fair to say this was electronica inspired by Orbital - amongst many other artists.
I haven't seen Cameron in many years, he was always brimming with sometimes ridiculous / sometimes brilliant ideas - i hope he's well and happy..we had a lot of fun together.

Blink and a week goes by around here!

I'm planning to release special versions of our two lp's from the 90's. Hopefully for sale in the shop by May depending on how much editing I'm going to have to do. They'll each feature unreleased tracks, dub mixes, demos and remixes we did at the time of the sessions.

It's a weird feeling having so much of your past suddenly at your fingertips, released from digital tape bondage...

Here's Eat Lead, from Vertigo X, taken from the very first session we did for Vertigo.

and Happyjack from Algorhythm X This track is from late in the Algorhythm sessions in '93. We played this one live a couple of times with a percussionist - which was great fun...wish we'd got to record him!

I've already posted What Are You So Dubby About? on Soundcloud which will be included...probably.

Hello. We're baaaaaack!

We have a new website, but not without some blood, sweat and fist waving at the screen!

OK, lots of fist waving at the screen.

Everything has had a refit. Our entire discography can be browsed and listened to in the music section. More importantly, the blog is front and center, mainly because it's time to move seriously forward. In January I finally completed transferring all our demos and masters from old formats to an easily accessible and organized system. This is big. That means, lots of old unreleased stuff to share, but also a new platform to share my ideas and new music - which is gathering pace.

Some of the sections will be updated over the coming weeks (mainly videos). If you have anything you would like to see included, or discover any problems with the site, please drop me a mail.

This magazine I found in my archives dates back to 1984, when a baby faced Numan still had real hair and Kraftwerk carted the veritable kitchen sink onstage to perform. This introduction to electronic music was one issue of a longer 'History of Rock' series and actually makes a pretty decent primer of early electronic music for the uninitiated and a bit of a curiosity for fans of the era. It features Herbie Hancock, YMO, Vangelis, The Human League, Kraftwerk, Numan, Devo, Duran Duran and OMD and includes a special section on Moog synthesizers..

Download PDF (26MB)

Superhighway To Hell by box-car Hello...oh yes, it's a long, long time between drinks here! But there have been wheels still turning...albeit slowly in the boxcar studio. People who have purchased from the store or signed up for membership have probably wondered : 'Hey where are the free goodes you promised!?'

This is the first of many tracks from the vault which will be available, starting tomorrow to you dear faithful friends...(when the emails go out)

A rarity from the vault; originally recorded by Boxcar for an album of AC/DC reinterpretations (1995/1996) For some reason (possibly relating to rights) the album was never released despite most of the bands having already mixed their contributions...
This is the alternate club mix...which turned out to be our favorite. We're making it available with all the other versions (it's a 4 track EP), free on boxcar.com.au to anyone who signs up for membership or buys anything from the store (ie everyone!)
There will be a special post here soon regarding a side project I did known as Bulb.

While this blog is primarily intended for posting new boxcar developments, it'll also be home to some various ramblings and goodies from my archives.. Back in the 'good ole' days', somewhere between the 'hand cranked era' and the 'spaghetti of midi' era this is the kind of thing that got plonked on the front of music making magazines.

I found five of these cassettes as I was digitizing and cleaning up.

I'll post them all eventually, in no particular order. If you've ever wondered what the Eurythmics jamming with Chris & Cosey sounds like - wonder no more.

Side A

Side B

Download Both with pdf contents booklet here

Well this is kinda old news, but not if you haven't already heard it right?

I agreed to remix Clan Analogue act, Valley Forge. I really like the material on their album. No idea why it's not out still. But IMHO it certainly deserves a decent release.

Boxcar were never particularly 'favored' with the 'bung it in distortion and a filter Richard James bootlicking set' that the Clan once used to represent. Although my pedigree is every bit as Cabaret Voltaire 'old fart' as theirs, clearly anything too 'pop' is a no no (surely even that's old now?)

Anyhow, I actually liked their music and it must have struck a chord with Pete from Single Gun Theory, as he's got a remix of another track on the EP. From what I heard, the boxcar remix got some play on FBI. Either way, I was happy with it...and that's all that matters these days. A bit about how it was made; The other versions (which can be heard on iTunes) have some live bass guitar, which i really enjoyed doing..  Sonic Charge's Microtonic is in use, as is Lennar Digital's Sylenth1 and some heapin' helpings of Ohmforce's terrific echo Ohmboyz.

The EP can be purchased on iTunes here, Follow Suit EP.

To buy a CD you can try your luck with this link.