Def FX was an Australian band founded in 1990 by keyboardist Sean Lowry. Members included Fiona Horne on lead vocals, Blake Gardiner on guitar and Martyn Basha on bass. They released four albums between 1992 and 1996 before disbanding in April 1997. For United States releases and touring, the band used the name Definition FX to avoid confusion with similarly named groups.
Def FX's music included elements of
electronic dance music
Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...
,
grunge
Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock Music genre, genre and subculture that emerged during the in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, particularly in Seattle and Music of Olympia, Washington, O ...
and
pop
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Pop music, a musical genre
Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop! (British group), a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Album ...
. Basha and Horne resurrected the band for touring in 2012 and 2013.
History
Def FX were formed in 1990 in Sydney with the line-up of Martyn Basha on bass guitar, Blake Gardner on lead guitar (both ex-Bezerk), Fiona Horne on lead vocals (ex-Mothers) and Sean Lowry on record player with a padlock on it, sequencers and samples (ex-King Prawn). According to Australian musicologist,
Ian McFarlane
Ian McFarlane (born 1959) is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the ''Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'' (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017.
As a journalist ...
, their "intention from the outset was to mix energetic dance beats with hardcore grungy rock ... equall nga spiralling, trance-inducing blast of electronic dance music."
Larry Van Kriedt
Larry Van Kriedt (born July 4, 1954) is an American-Australian jazz musician. He is best known for being the original bass guitar, bassist for the rock band AC/DC around November 1973, joining Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar), Angus Young (lead gui ...
was a "hidden fifth member" on saxophone and sequencers (ex-AC/DC, Non Stop Dancers); he "also co-wrote much of the band's early material."
Def FX's debut release was a four-track extended play, ''Water'', in June 1991 via
Phantom Records
Phantom Records was an Australian record store and independent record label established in 1978 on Pitt Street in Sydney. Phantom Records was one of Australia's first indie labels, and the store was known for its guerilla marketing strategies. ...
. It featured the song, "Surfers of the Mind", which Joanna Palmer of ''
Tharunka
''Gamamari'' is a student magazine published at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Established in 1953 as ''Tharunka'' at the then New South Wales University of Technology, the publication has been published in a variety of ...
'' described as "a violent whirlpool of high-voltage house metal where
orne
Orne (; or ) is a département in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne. It had a population of 279,942 in 2019.owrys 21st century gospel raps around her." The track appeared on national radio station, Triple J's listeners' poll for
1991
It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...
. They toured Australia, and promoted it with the band's first
music video
A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
. ''Water'' was produced by Nick Mainsbridge. At the
ARIA Music Awards of 1992
The Sixth Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as the ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) was held on 6 March 1992 at the World Congress Centre in Melbourne. Hosts were international guest, Julian Lenno ...
Producer of the Year
The Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical is an honor presented to record producers for quality non-classical music at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors in ...
. Note: User may be required to access archived information by selecting 'The History', then 'By Award', 'Producer of the Year' and 'Option Show Nominations'.
They followed with a second EP, ''Surge'', in November, which included the track, "Under the Blue". A third EP, ''Blink'' (June 1992), included the track, "Sex/Game/Sucker". Gardner was replaced on guitar by Dave Stein late in 1992. Lowry summarised the group's attitude to signing with a major label, "It was always important to stay independent long enough to set the parameters of the band, so that anyone who came on board would be clear what the band was like and how it should be marketed."
Their first album, ''Light Speed Collision'', was released in November 1992 in a vinyl-only format via
Phantom Records
Phantom Records was an Australian record store and independent record label established in 1978 on Pitt Street in Sydney. Phantom Records was one of Australia's first indie labels, and the store was known for its guerilla marketing strategies. ...
; it appeared in CD format through
EMI
EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...
in the following February. The album included guest vocals by
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
pop singer,
Margaret Urlich
Margaret Mary Urlich (24 January 1965 – 22 August 2022) was a New Zealand singer who lived in Australia for most of her career.
Urlich's 1989 debut solo studio album, ''Safety in Numbers'', won " Breakthrough Artist – Album" at the 1991 A ...
. For its United States version, on RCA/BMG in June 1993, the band used the name, Definition FX, to avoid confusion with a US band,
Das EFX
Das EFX is an American hip hop duo. It consists of emcees Dray (also known as Krazy Drayz, born Andre Weston, September 9, 1970) and Skoob (also known as Books and Boogie Bang, born William "Willie" Hines, November 27, 1970). They named them ...
. They reordered the tracks and added material from two of their EPs. Lowry explained to Nic Haygarth of ''
The Canberra Times
''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times.
History
''The Canberra Times'' was launched in 1 ...
'' that "People get the misconception that because we're a technology-based band we do a lot of our work and development of songs in the studio, but I suppose what we do there is attempt to transfer the live show to record, and we might put up a very rough mock-up of a song and start playing it."
The second album, ''Baptism'', released in 1993, is a compilation of three Australian-released EPs ''Water'', ''Surge'' and ''Blink'' as well as a 12-inch single, "Surfers of the Mind". ''Baptism'' featured the track, "Make Your Stash", which is apparently so rare that Horne had no idea of its existence when presented it for autographing by a dedicated Def FX fan. The single was rather atypical of Def FX, in that it had no cover art and no
B-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
s, which had characterised their EPs. The band usually preferred to make each release, be it album or EP, a conceptual work that made full use of the
compact disc
The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...
format that had recently come into commercial prominence. At the
ARIA Music Awards of 1993
The Seventh Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as the ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) was held on 14 April 1993 at the Entertainment Centre in Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States a ...
''Blink'' was nominated for Best Independent Release.
Three more EPs followed ''No Time for Nowhere'' (March 1993), ''Space Time Disco'' (June) and ''Post Moronic'' (September 1994). At the end of 1993 Basha had departed and his duties on bass guitar were taken up by Van Kriedt. ''Post Moronic'' appeared on the
ARIA Singles Chart
The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...
in the top 50. One of its tracks, "Masses Like Asses", was listed on the Triple J Hottest 100, 1994.
''Ritual Eternal'' (1995), their third album, is more experimental: including tracks without standard guitars and others with
Charlie McMahon
Charlie McMahon is an Australian didgeridoo player. The founder of the group Gondwanaland, McMahon was one of the first non- Aboriginal musicians to gain fame as a professional player of the instrument. He is also the inventor of the didjeri ...
on
didgeridoo
The didgeridoo (;()), also spelt didjeridu, among other variants, is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgerido ...
(ex- Gondwanaland Project), who also joined Def FX on tour. It was recorded and produced almost entirely by Lowry, following the cancellation of their contract with EMI, and was issued via independent label Cicada Music and distributed by MDS. McFarlane felt the CD was "over-ambitious". ''Ritual Eternal'' introduced their new bass guitarist, Peter Tasker, who was forced out of the band months later and replaced by Sean Fonti (ex-
Massappeal
Massappeal were an Australian hardcore punk band founded in early 1985 by mainstays Brett Curotta (guitar) and Randy Reimann (vocals). They released four studio albums, ''Nobody Likes a Thinker'' (1986), ''Jazz'' (1989), ''The Mechanic'' (1992) ...
,
Caligula
Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), also called Gaius and Caligula (), was Roman emperor from AD 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the Roman general Germanicus and Augustus' granddaughter Ag ...
). At the
ARIA Music Awards of 1995
The Ninth Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as the ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) was held on 20 October 1995 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre. There had been a 18-month gap since the ...
they were nominated for Best Independent Release for their third album.
In October 1995 they issued the EP, ''Psychoactive Summer'', which also reached the top 50 on the ARIA Charts. It was followed by their fourth album, ''Majick'', in mid-year, which peaked at No. 21 on the ARIA Albums Chart. It provided four singles. The band dissolved in May of that year with the split announced by Horne on ABC-TV's Saturday morning youth variety show, '' Recovery''.
Post break up and reunions
Fiona Horne followed Def FX with musical releases 'Shut Up and Kiss Me' with
Paul McDermott
Paul Anthony Michael McDermott (born 13 May 1962) is an Australian entertainer, best known both for '' Good News Week'' and for his role as a member of the musical comedy group the Doug Anthony All Stars. He has frequently appeared at the Mel ...
and a solo single "Let's Go Out Tonight" (both achieving chart success) before subsequently become a writer, with 15 books including one autobiography, and two oracle decks. Her books explore the subject of Modern Witchcraft. She is an actress, as well as a performer in reality television as both host and contestant; she used to appear on the ''
Hamish and Andy
Hamish & Andy are an Australian comedy duo formed in 2003 by Hamish Blake and Andy Lee. Best known for their various drive time radio programmes on the Hit Network, which aired in multiple formats until 2017, their shows gained consistently ...
'' radio programme. In March 2007 Horne released her first solo CD, ''Witch Web'', based on her spiritual practice.
Sean Lowry completed his Ph.D in 2003 at the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
. Lowry is now an academic, writer and visual artist. Sean Fonti formed
Primary
Primary or primaries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Primary (band), from Australia
* Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea
* Primary Music, Israeli record label
Work ...
with brother Jamie Fonti also from Caligula and vocalist,
Connie Mitchell
Connie Thembi Mitchell (born ), also known as Miss Connie, is a South African-born Australian singer. In 1995 she was a founding member of Primary. Briefly, in 2004, she was vocalist for Machine Gun Fellatio under the pseudonym Feyonce. Since ...
.
With Horne and Basha as the sole original members, Def FX reunited and embarked on a national tour in May–June 2012, performing in east coast state capitals. Joining the pair were electronic musician Ant Banister (Clan Analogue) on keyboard and vocals and Wiley Cochrane on guitar, as well as an appearance by Jesse Basha (son of bassist Martyn Basha). From October to November 2013 they reformed again to play shows in Adelaide, Melbourne, Newcastle, Sydney and Brisbane. More recently in 2019 they reformed again for a sold out east coast Australia tour, with new Bassist from bands, Sounds Like Winter, True Love Choas, Sian(FTB) Wiliams, In 2023, they reformed for another east coast tour.
Horne formed rock band, SEAWITCH playing guitar, singing and as songwriter in 2020 with former Hellmenn guitarist, Dave Hopkins. SEAWITCH released five videos in two years, one self titled EP and their debut album, 'Well of Spells' released on the Cheersquad Label on 30 October 2022 debuted at Number 2 on the AIR Record Chart.
Discography
Albums
Extended Plays
Singles
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The
ARIA Music Awards
The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...
are a set of annual ceremonies presented by
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival Records (Australia), Festival, Sony Music ...
(ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the
music of Australia
The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions o ...
. They commenced in 1987.
!
, -
,
1992
1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General.
* January 6
** The Republ ...