Surveillance (FM album)

Last updated
Surveillance
FM Surveillance.jpg
Studio album by
FM
Released1979
RecordedSounds Interchange, Toronto
Genre Space rock
Length36:09
Label Passport, Arista
Producer Keith Whiting
FM chronology
Direct to Disc
(1978)
Surveillance
(1979)
City of Fear
(1980)

Surveillance is the third album by FM, a progressive rock group from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, released on Passport Records in summer 1979, the first to be "widely issued." It has been re-released for the first time in CD format on Esoteric Records in March 2013.

FM (Canadian band) Canadian progressive rock music group

FM is a Canadian progressive rock music group formed in 1976 in Toronto. The band existed from 1976 to 1989, 1994-1996, 2006, and 2011-present. They have had periods of inactivity during their existence. Their music has been categorized as space rock, and lyrics are dominated by science fiction themes. In November 2011, Cameron Hawkins reformed the band with two new players.

Progressive rock is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States throughout the mid- to late 1960s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the style was an outgrowth of psychedelic bands who abandoned standard pop traditions in favour of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz, folk, or classical music. Additional elements contributed to its "progressive" label: lyrics were more poetic, technology was harnessed for new sounds, music approached the condition of "art", and the studio, rather than the stage, became the focus of musical activity, which often involved creating music for listening rather than dancing.

Canada Country in North America

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Its southern border with the United States, stretching some 8,891 kilometres (5,525 mi), is the world's longest bi-national land border. Canada's capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.

Contents

Notes on songs

The album continues the space rock lyrical theme introduced on Black Noise; the opening track's chorus is a chant of "Sci-fi rock, rocket roll".

Space rock is a rock music genre characterized by loose and lengthy song structures centred on instrumental textures that typically produce a hypnotic, otherworldly sound. It may feature distorted and reverberation-laden guitars, minimal drumming, languid vocals, synthesizers and lyrical themes of outer space and science fiction.

Science fiction Genre of speculative fiction

Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, time travel, parallel universes, fictional worlds, space exploration, and extraterrestrial life. It has been called the "literature of ideas", and often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations.

The group's first cover version appears on this album: "Shapes of Things", originally recorded by The Yardbirds in 1966. FM (and Nash the Slash) would frequently pay tribute to their favourite songs, mostly from the 1960s, in the years to come. This song was also issued as a single (Arista 0477 in the USA).

Shapes of Things Song first recorded by the Yardbirds in 1966

"Shapes of Things" is a song by the English rock group the Yardbirds. With its Eastern-sounding, feedback-laden guitar solo and anti-war/pro-environmental lyrics, several music writers have identified it as the first popular psychedelic rock song. It is built on musical elements contributed by several group members in three different recording studios in the US and was the first Yardbirds' composition to become a record chart hit. When it was released as a single on 25 February 1966, the song reached number three in the UK and the top-ten in the US and Canada.

The Yardbirds English blues and psychedelic rock band

The Yardbirds are an English rock band, formed in London in 1963. The band's core lineup featured vocalist and harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist/bassist Chris Dreja and bassist/producer Paul Samwell-Smith. The band is known for starting the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, all of whom ranked in the top five of Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 greatest guitarists. The band had a string of hits throughout the mid-1960s, including "For Your Love", "Heart Full of Soul", "Shapes of Things" and "Over Under Sideways Down".

An unusual song on Surveillance is a mostly instrumental track titled "Sofa Back", which the group performed live without its brief vocoderized chant of "Moe, Larry, cheese", a quote from the Three Stooges short film "Horses' Collars", expecting the audience would not understand it. Much to the group's surprise, audiences usually chanted the phrase during performance. This song also has a copyright date of 1966, and is presumably an old composition of Mink's which he brought to the group.

Vocoder electronic device

A vocoder is a category of voice codec that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption, voice transformation, etc.

<i>Horses Collars</i> 1935 film by Clyde Bruckman

Horses' Collars is the fifth short film released by Columbia Pictures in 1935 starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges. The comedians released 190 short films for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

"Random Harvest' is featured on a 2006 benefit album titled After The Storm for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. [1]

A remastered edition of Surveillance was released by Esoteric Records (ECLEC2383) on March 25, 2013.

Track listing

All compositions by Cameron Hawkins, Martin Deller, Ben Mink, except as noted.

Side one
  1. "Rocket Roll" – 3:29
  2. "Orion" – 1:33
  3. "Horizons" – 4:21
  4. "Random Harvest" – 4:36
  5. "Shapes of Things" (Paul Samwell-Smith, Keith Relf, Jim McCarty) – 3:07
Side two
  1. "Seventh Heaven" – 5:39
  2. "Father Time" – 4:23
  3. "Sofa Back" (Mink, B. Feldman) – 3:01
  4. "Destruction" – 6:00

Personnel

Technical credits

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