The Lab were an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

-based

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

band consisting of keyboardist

Paul Mac Paul Francis McDermott (born 17 September 1965), who performs as Paul Mac, is an Australian electropop musician, singer-songwriter, producer and music re-mixer. He was classically trained at Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Mac has formed variou ...

, vocalist Yolanda Podolski and vocalist and bassist Warwick Factor. The band was started by Paul Mac and Tristan Mason and an early lineup included two bass players. The name came about when one of them was listening to an Eric B and Rakim album which had the vocal line in it: "Back to the lab" which, according to Mason: "described our after gig practices, as in lets go back to The Lab, which was where me, Paul and Yolanda all lived." They formed in the late 1980s and initially recorded on the

rooArt rooArt was an Australian independent record label, founded in 1988 by INXS's then-manager, Chris Murphy. The label's roster included several well-known Australian bands and artists such as Crow, Ratcat, Screaming Jets, You Am I, Wendy Matthews ...

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...

. Their first release was the track "Heaven" which was included on rooArt's 1990 ''Young Blood 3'' new artists sampler. The Lab's early work was characterised by a dense,

darkwave Dark wave (also typeset as darkwave) is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as be ...

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

sensibility mixed with

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

and

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

elements with vocals provided by Factor and the operatically-trained Podolski. Their early sound displayed influences as varied as

Cocteau Twins Cocteau Twins was a Scottish rock band active from 1979 to 1997. They were formed in Grangemouth by Robin Guthrie (guitars, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass), adding Elizabeth Fraser (vocals) in 1981 and replacing Heggie with multi-instrum ...

Tackhead Tackhead (styled TACK>>HEAD, sometimes known as Fats Comet) is an industrial hip-hop group that was most active during the 1980s and early 1990s, and briefly reformed in 2004 for a tour. Their music occupies the territory where funk, dub, indus ...

(whom they supported at a 1989 Sydney show) and New Order. Their sound was also influenced by the classical training of Mac and the operatically trained alto singer Podolski.

Tom Ellard Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in '' Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

from

Severed Heads Severed Heads were an Australian electronic music group founded in 1979 as Mr and Mrs No Smoking Sign. The original members were Richard Fielding and Andrew Wright, who were soon joined by Tom Ellard. Fielding and Wright had both left the band b ...

helped produce an album during this era that was never released, and only a smattering of the darker material made its way on to the ''Ultra'' and ''Terminal'' EPs released in 1992 and 1993, respectively. The Lab's live performances, mostly at Sydney inner-city venues, were noteworthy for their use of multimedia, beyond any other small live bands of the time. Live performances made use of multiple film and/or video projectors, displaying surreal footage and stills synchronised with each part of each song they were playing . While The Lab enjoyed good airplay rotation on the youth radio station

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

, they never achieved high-level commercial success. The Lab took a recording hiatus during the mid-1990s as Paul Mac found moderate pop success with his other, more commercially oriented project,

Itch-E and Scratch-E Itch-E and Scratch-E are an Australian electronic music group formed in 1991 by Paul Mac (a.k.a. Itch-E, Mace) and Andy Rantzen (a.k.a. Scratch-E, Boo Boo), both playing keyboards and samples. The duo recorded as Boo Boo & Mace! during the la ...

. Two singles "Beautiful Sadness" (1996) and "I Will Find You" (1997) were released in advance of the debut album proper, 1997's ''Labyrinth''. By this time their sound had evolved into a more

ambient Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to: Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds * Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere * ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby * ...

-pop-oriented direction, but the singles had little chart impact. ''Labyrinth'' turned out to also be their last album and the group disbanded in the late 1990s as the members pursued solo projects.

Discography

Albums * ''Ultra'' (EP), rooArt (1992) * ''Terminal'' (EP), rooArt (1993) * ''Labyrinth'',

BMG BMG may refer to: Organizations * Music publishing companies: ** Bertelsmann Music Group, a 1987–2008 division of Bertelsmann that was purchased by Sony on October 1, 2008 *** Sony BMG, a 2004–2008 joint venture of Bertelsmann and Sony that wa ...

(1997) (included a bonus disc ''Ultra-Terminal'' which included the first two EPs, with the exception of the last hidden track on the original ''Terminal'' EP) Singles * "Heaven" (1990) (only released on ''Young Blood 3'' compilation, a completely different remix/version appeared on ''Ultra'' EP) * "Beautiful Sadness", Ra Records (1996) * "I Will Find You" (1997)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lab Australian electronic musicians Musical groups from Sydney