FM: Head Room – Direct to Disc (1978)

People generally have their opinions about this Canadian band FM, and I have to admit a lot of their music is a bit on the commercially inclined side (1980’s City of Fear more so than their previous albums), although they did make a couple of great albums.

In 1977, the group, which consisted of keyboardist/bassist/vocalist Cameron Hawkins, electric violin/electric mandolin player Nash the Slash, and drummer/percussionist Martin Deller recorded Black Noise. The album was first released by the CBC and guaranteed its rarity by being only available through mail order, but the fate of that album was to change fast. Passport Records got a hold of it in 1978 and had it re-released, this time making it readily available in record stores. It’s the Passport version (or, here in America, the Visa version, which was a division of Passport Records) that’s easy to come by in used record stores, and still so to this day.

By this point, Nash the Slash left FM to pursue a solo career, and in his place was Ben Mink, also on electric violin and electric mandolin. Yes, the same Ben Mink who later played for k.d. lang. The band recorded their second album, called Head Room, also called Direct to Disc, released on the Labyrinth label. This was basically a one-take album that was really a direct to disc recording. It’s also became their rarest and most desirable album, because it was a limited edition copy, and no CD reissue exists (in fact, only Black Noise received a proper CD reissue because the master tapes of their other albums were apparently lost, including Head Room). If you can find a copy of Head Room, or find a way to hear it, it’s really worth your attention. If you were put off by the commercial tendencies of their other albums, you’ll be much happier with this album. It consists of two side-length cuts (title track and “Border Crossing”) which were largely improvised. Ben Mink really shows what he’s made of on violin, while Cameron Hawkins gives some really trippy spacy synthesizers, from his Moog and string synths. I even think Martin Deller gives us some of his most interesting drum work. The music goes through different changes, some of them sound like FM as you expect, especially the vocal sections, but a lot of it really gets very experimental with synth effects. Given this was a one-take recording, there might be a couple of passages that don’t quite cut the mustard, but other than that, a very interesting album. It really is different from the usual FM album, and if the FM you like is the less commercial and more experimental side, you should try to get a hold of this album, it’s really worth your time!