Def FX - History

History

With guitarist Blake Gardner, bassist Martyn Basha, and Larry Van Kriedt on saxophone and programming respectively, the band released their first EP Water in 1990. The release featured the song "Surfers of the Mind", the band's first music video. Their first album Light Speed Collision was released in 1992 (first as a vinyl-only release on the Phantom Records label, followed by CD in 1992 through EMI) and featured a cover both parodying and paying tribute to that of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, with the title track also decidedly Floydesque. The album also featured supplementary vocals by New Zealand singer Margaret Urlich. For its release in the United States the band were forced to use the artist name "Definition FX" to avoid any confusion with US band Das EFX.

The next album Baptism, released in 1993, was a compilation of the EPs "Water", "Surge" and "Blink" as well as the 12-inch "Surfers of the Mind" single. It also featured the single "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-sides, 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 format that had recently come into commercial prominence.

Weeks before the band's second tour of the United States, guitarist Gardner left the band to be replaced by Dave Stein. By the end of 1993, Martyn Basha also departed, replaced by long-time member Larry Van Kriedt.

Ritual Eternal (1995) was a more experimental album, featuring some tracks without the standard guitars, and others featuring Charlie McMahon playing the didgeridoo, with whom Def FX also toured. Recorded and produced almost entirely by Sean Lowry, following the cancellation of their contract with EMI, this album also introduced new bassist, Peter Tasker, who was forced out of the band months later for his unprofessional behaviour. His replacement was Sean Fonti, formerly of Sydney acts Massappeal and Caligula

1996 saw the release of Majick. It spawned four singles, and became the band's only certified release, going gold in 1997. The band dissolved in May of that year, as Lowry had a plan to end the project. The split was announced by Horne on ABCTV's Saturday morning youth variety show Recovery. It was coincidentally during the same news segment as seminal Seattle grunge act Soundgarden's demise was also made public.