Tom Ellard | |
---|---|
Birth name | Thomas Temple Ellard |
Born | 1962 (age 60–61) |
Genres | Experimental, electronic, synth-pop, IDM, industrial (Early years) |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, synthesizers, drum programming, tape loops |
Years active | 1979–present |
Labels | Sevcom, Nettwerk, Volition, Ink, Terse Tapes |
Website | nilamox |
Thomas Temple Ellard (born 1962) is an Australian electronic musician best known as the founding member of the electronic and industrial music group Severed Heads.
Ellard's first music contributions began in the late 1970s as a teenager when he was influenced by groups that emerged from the early United Kingdom and Australian punk movement.
Predating music technology such as MIDI and personal computers, Ellard's early work was performed with tape machines, tape loops and basic analogue equipment. In 1979, Richard Fielding and Andrew Wright formed an electronic dance group called Mr. and Mrs. No Smoking Sign, and they were soon joined by Ellard. [1]
Fielding renamed the group Severed Heads. Through the 1980s, Ellard began to take advantage of technological developments such as the music sequencer in combination with looping sounds before sampling arose. Severed Heads were probably most well known in Australia for chart success with a 1994 remix of the track "Dead Eyes Opened" (initially released in the early 1980s), which made the Australian top 40. Ellard is also noted for his early contributions to the electronic and industrial music movements in Australia and overseas.
In 2013, Ellard created the interactive game Hauntology House. [2] He has expressed interest in the computer-gaming platform many times in interviews. [3]
In 2005, Ellard received the Australian Record Industry Association's ARIA Music Award for the best original soundtrack/cast/show for the soundtrack to the Australian film The Illustrated Family Doctor . [4]
As of 2006 [update] , Ellard resides in Surry Hills, Sydney and continues to record music and soundtracks. He also lectures at a variety of educational facilities on music production in Australia. He is the creator and director of sevcom.com, a website for alternative methods of music distribution and creation.
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 of indigenous and Western styles are exemplified in the works of Yothu Yindi, No Fixed Address, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and Christine Anu, and mark distinctly Australian contributions to world music.
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 by mid-1981 with Ellard remaining the sole consistent member for the rest of the band's existence. Throughout the next decade, several musicians joined Severed Heads' ranks, including Garry Bradbury, Simon Knuckey, Stephen Jones and Paul Deering.
Itch-E and Scratch-E are an Australian electronic music group formed in 1991 by Paul Mac and Andy Rantzen, both playing keyboards and samples. The duo recorded as Boo Boo & Mace! during the late 1990s. At times they have included a third member, Sheriff Lindo, recording under the name Boo-Boo, Mace 'n' Nutcase. In 2001 they disbanded as Mac pursued his solo career. In 2010 the duo reunited as Itch-E and Scratch-E to release new material.
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 ", "Insect" and "Gas Stop ". 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.
Carl Stone is an American composer, primarily working in the field of live electronic music. His works have been performed in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and the Near East.
The Lab were an Australian Sydney-based electronic music band consisting of keyboardist Paul Mac, 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 label. Their first release was the track "Heaven" which was included on rooArt's 1990 Young Blood 3 new artists sampler.
Ivor Arthur Davies, AM, known professionally as Iva Davies, is an Australian singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.
This is a discography of releases from the Australian experimental band Severed Heads. Since their creation in 1979, the group has released 23 studio albums, 1 split album, 14 compilation albums, 1 soundtrack, 3 extended plays, 14 singles, and 8 home video releases. The group's 1984 single "Dead Eyes Opened" peaked at number 16 on the Australian ARIA Charts when remixed and re-issued in 1994, and singles from their 1989 album Rotund for Success, "Greater Reward" and "All Saints Day", both charted on Billboard's Top Dance Tracks charts at numbers 19 and 25, respectively.
The early dark wave band Browning Mummery began in Sydney in 1983, formed by Australian electronic musician Andrew Lonsdale, as both a collaborative and solo entity for electronic sound works.
Garry Bradbury was a British-born Australian electronic musician active in Sydney's experimental music scene from 1979 to 2022.
Since the Accident is the fourth studio album released by Australian electronic dance music group Severed Heads, first released in 1983. Released through Ink Records, it was the first major label release by the group. The album's lead single "Dead Eyes Opened" received critical and commercial success, peaking at #16 on the ARIA Charts. Throughout the years following the album's initial release in 1983, the recording has been reissued many times on multiple different formats through a variety of record labels.
Blubberknife is the third studio album released by the Australian experimental group Severed Heads, originally as a C90 cassette tape. The first approximately 200 copies were packaged inside cassette cases that were spray-painted silver, stuffed with loose cassette tape and had parts from the insides of television sets glued to the front of the case. Five copies were specially packaged inside fully operational calculators. It's the first album by the group to feature contributions by Stephen Jones, and it is also the first recording by the group to catch the attention of UK label Ink Records, who helped release Since the Accident a year later and reissued Blubberknife in a standard cassette case with new artwork in 1984. As with most of their discography, Blubberknife has been reissued several times.
Richard Fielding was a founding member of the Australian electronic dance group Severed Heads in 1979 in Sydney. He has been a member of other experimental, avant garde music groups such as Z-Glutz, The Loop Orchestra and Budgie Woops! He has had a career as a radio presenter on various New South Wales stations.
Single Gun Theory was an Australian electronic dance music band formed in 1986. Founding mainstay members were Jacqui Hunt on lead vocals; Kath Power on vocal melodies and synthesiser; and Peter Rivett-Carnac on guitar, synthesiser and sampling. They released three studio albums, Exorcise This Wasteland (1987), Millions, Like Stars in My Hands, The Daggers in My Heart Wage War (1991) and Flow, River of My Soul (1994) for Canadian label Nettwerk and Australia's Volition Records. The band’s music combined elements of downtempo electronic music with introspective, ethereal vocals and samples of dialogue. It also released a soundtrack album for Samantha Lang's film The Monkey's Mask in 2000.
John Thomas Blades was an Australian experimental music artist and member of The Loop Orchestra; he also worked as a radio broadcaster and documentary maker, and as a civil engineer. In 1982 he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and used a wheelchair from 1993. In 2010, his radio documentary, The Too Hard Basket, won the Walkley Award for 'Social Equity Journalism – All Media', and the 'Radio Documentary of the Year Award' from the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. Blades died on 25 November 2011 after complications from cancer therapy.
City Slab Horror is the fifth studio album by the Australian experimental pop music group Severed Heads. First released in 1985 through Ink Records, it is the second major label album the group has ever released, following the 1983 album Since the Accident. The track "Goodbye Tonsils" was released as a single to promote the album, which met favorable reviews from some critics and no reviews at all from the vast majority of the remaining critics.
Cuisine (With Piscatorial) is the ninth studio album released by Australian electronic music group Severed Heads, issued in 1991. The album's lead single, "Twister", was released a year later.
Haul Ass is the eleventh studio album by Australian electronic music group Severed Heads. After Tom Ellard's relationship soured with Nettwerk and Volition Records, he decided to release Haul Ass independently through his then newly formed Sevcom imprint, making Haul Ass the first independently released Severed Heads album since 1982's Blubberknife. The album was burned on CD-R discs, while the artwork for the jewel cases were home printed with the use of a computer printer. Two editions were made, the "standard edition", which had prominently red and grey artwork, and the "special edition", which included two extra tracks not included on the standard edition. The special edition was limited to only 1000 copies. Tom Ellard has described the album as "dark". The entire album was recorded with software called Session 8, the precursor of Pro Tools.
"Dead Eyes Opened" is a song by the experimental Australian group Severed Heads, originally released on their 1983 album Since the Accident. Upon its initial release as a 12-inch record single in 1984, the track received critical success. A remixed version released in October 1994 achieved commercial success in Australia, peaking at #16 on the ARIA Charts.
80's Cheesecake is a solo album produced and written by Tom Ellard of Severed Heads. It was released in 1982 as a C60 cassette tape through his own Terse Tapes label. According to Ellard, the album, along with his previous one, Snappy Carrion (1982), were recorded out of interest in making pop music. It is a precursor of Severed Heads' shift in sound, from their early industrialised sound to the more accessible electronic styles of their later recordings. Tracks from this cassette appeared on the Severed Heads' compilation album Clifford Darling, Please Don't Live in the Past (1985).