That's Nash the Slash on electric mandolin and violin. He performed swathed in bandages wearing a top hat and tuxedo. Weird and amazing .

The Echo guitar fx box was still mainly used in experimental music, as were synthesizers. This song played with the brains of us Canadian kids, in the 70s.

Canadian prog? May you live long and proper, human! Peace & Love.

Wow......FM.....not many channels where you'll hear stuff like this......another Canadian band almost lost in the long shadow cast by Rush.....fair ad hinest reaction 👏

Another Toronto band! YAY!!! You should investigate Max Webster - another band that might throw you for a loop. Particularly their self-titled 1st album. Mutiny Up My Sleeve also has a few good tracks, as does High Class in Borrowed Shoes. Give a listen!

FM, being a Toronto band, got some decent airplay in Canada for a while. "Nash The Slash", on electric violin and mandolin, was an unusual figure. You can see him playing the mandolin solo in a video of this song. That was before he started wearing his top hat plus facial surgical bandages look. Another 70's Toronto band, who never made it big in the U.S. was A Foot In Cold Water, who's single "(Make Me Do) Anything You Want" has a really melodic guitar solo.

I love this song and this album and this band!!

Amazing song with a lot of feels

Rolling Stone Magazine named FM's album that this comes from, Black Noise, as #48 in their list of 50 greatest prog rock albums of all time. The title song is in many ways, the band's homage to King Crimson's song "Starless", which the band covered live on the FM/Nash the Slash album "Lost in Space".

Love this album thanks for doing this. The whole album is uniformly great. Wildly under appreciated

YES! Love this! The next song, “One o’clock Tomorrow, is another good one. Thanks for this, Justin ❤

They used to open for Rush. They used a mandolin (acoustically and amplified with effects) instead of guitar.

One O'Clock Tomorrow. Just awesome.

This whole album is a Canadian legend in itself. Every track is superb and they released a great follow up called Surviellance. These guys were buddies w Rush and Rush and FM actuslly influenced one another. You can really hear their influence on Rush's Signals album for sure. I highly recommend checking out the rest of this album.

These guys and Saga were such good early Neo-Prog bands that came from Canada. This is a really good album and this track is a fav. I’m glad to see others listen to bands like this who never broke through in their day. Good stuff!

They got a little airplay in my area (SF Bay) and I got to see them opening for rush. Really fun stuff, nice to see someone giving them some attention.

This song is great! I haven't heard that much from FM but after this song, I will be listening to more of their catalog.

Such a wonderful era for Canadian bands. Amazing musicians, unique music, and often overlooked by our neighbours to the south. As a result we got to see them regularly in more intimate medium-sized and club-like settings. So memorable. Bands like Prism, Max Webster, Nash the Slash, David Wilcox, Toronto, Rough Trade, Teenage Head, Trooper, Ian Thomas, and so many more. A truly Canadian soundtrack for my youth.

Hi Jp. Wow Fm a blast from the past. A very under rated band. Aldebaron another great track. Being a keyboard player loved the heavy use of them.Thanks.

I saw these guys live in a small club in Buffalo NY in 1978, they were amazing. Great guys as well , had the LP autographed by the whole group! Great nite

The whole album is excellent. They did a reunion show of sorts at NEARFest 2006 (Cameron Hawkins and Martin Dellar, but no Nash the Slash, they had a guy named Claudio Vena on violin and mandolin), where they played the entire album. I believe that show is available still on CD/DVD, it was released quite while later. Their other albums are worth checking out, the one they did around 2015 called Transformation is very good.

Amazing album.

'Ole Audiophile to JustJP: Precious & few have heard much from this Canadian wonder. Being from Cleveland & WMMS Buzzard radio being close to anything resembling good Canadian Rock, this area was privy to all of their first three records. All but the Direct To Disc. That was so limited as to be nearly impossible to get one's hands on. Now, one can purchase it on CD if still in print. This band was years before it's time much like Rush was. This song in particular hit us like a hammer when it came out. It's aged quite well. Thanx (Sofaback from this very same album quite impressed me as well.)

also look at the title track "Black Noise" for classic Nash the Slash riffs or a single from another album "Just like You"

Interesting. The Saga track you played the other day, I described as proto-neo-prog and this (also from a Canadian band of the late 70s) has more in common with Pallas, Twelfth Night and early IQ than it does ELP, Yes or King Crimson. Apart from Rush, I didn't pick up on Canadian prog at the time, and nothing I hear on this track suggests that I missed out, but interesting to hear this in a historical sense.

You need to hear their song Black Noise, it's a perfect prog song.

Ah, ya sly dog. They were so good live, caught them opening for Rush and in clubs. Nash The Slash (Electric violin/mandolin) did some really cool avant-garde stuff solo. Thanks for checking this out. ALSO: For your own personal interest, you can look up on the U-Toobs "FM, Night Music" to see them live at the U of T when this was first released. "Night Music" was a concert series in the 70s/80s at the University of Toronto by local musicians.

OMG, this is a blast from my past! I had the vinyl of this growing up, but I haven't so much as thought of them in decades. I remember the album cover and this track well. And my eyes popped when you reminded me that Nash The Slash is in here! That's probably how I found out about FM to begin with. I really liked Nash too, and his solo stuff is worth exploring. It's a blend of progressive rock, New Wave, new age, and punk rock, and oh that electric violin! I saw him perform in NY - he was a real bang-up and impressed me. I remember loving his album Children of the Night, but sorry, I can't recall favorite track names.

Bands like FM are what separate the casual from the hardcore prog fans. They were an interesting 3-piece of drums, electric violin/mandolin, and synths and vocals (Cameron Hawkins, who also played bass on the recordings). Mandolin player Nash the Slash was a household name in Canada, and had a reasonably successful solo career after he left FM following this album. His replacement, Ben Mink, will be a familiar name to Rush and kd lang fans. This entire album, and the next -- Surveillance -- are heavily sci-fi themed prog albums. They even cover The Yardbirds "Shapes of Things". But they're the kind of prog band that people who think bands like Camel are too well known should seek out. Pretty much the entire catalog, including the EP Direct to Disc (aka Headroom), is now available on CD.

Thanks for the reaction, probably not one to bring in the big views but I think it's an interesting footnote for the late '70s by having a space rock sound and some clear inspirations from Caravan and the Canterbury scene. I heard this song maybe once on the radio as a kid, and the opening mandolin and lyrics stuck with me for years before I was finally able to find this song and album.

Great song! Imo the title track "Black Noise" from the same album is even better, one of my favorite songs.

FM is like a cross between early Saga and '80s Rush, except that Black Noise dates from 1977. It's nothing special, even for its time, but it's fun and catchy on occasion. I think I've still got this album somewhere, but I haven't listened to it for a long time, but now I've got it on your channel!😉

How long before my eyes brighten, i can sit back and enjoy some quality music? Now that really is the €64,000 dollar question! 🤷

Thanks for doing the Canadian FM, a band that was very prog early in their career and for a brief spell in the 80's very Synth-Pop. There is also a U.K. act called FM, they are a melodic rock band with a long career as well.

Such a great song!! Hope you are doing well JP!! :) FM sort of evokes to me the Drama-90125 period of Yes. "Phasors on Stun" feels like something that Trevor Horn & Chris Squire might come up with, there's another song on this album "Journey" that reminds me of Trevor Rabin (in a good way). Of course, "Black Noise" preceded Drama and 90125 both, strong material on it!

This album is Great from start to finish & was very popular when it came out winning a gold record award . You should do the whole album . Their other albums are great too . Very underrated 70s / 80s prog band .I really like the album City of fear produced by Larry Fast ( Synergy ) They even have An album that's a cross between prog & popular new wave called Tonight . They have a concert video on KZfaq from Nearest . They only have 6 albums ,there is a another group called FM but is totally Not the same group but gets mixed up together on music sites .

This is a very good album to the end. "Aldebaran" and "One O'Clock Tomorrow" are also notable songs. Nash is a legend. Try his version of "Dead Man's Curve". Edit: the phasor sounds coming in after the break.

That was okay. I can't say I paid serious attention to it but it played in the background while I was doing other things and it filled an aural cavity or two with pleasantness (which is all anyone can ask for really, isn't it?).

I really liked this when I first heard it many years ago. I still like it, but it feels like the song doesn't really go anywhere. There are parts of the song that remind me of Grobschnitt of similar vintage. Anyway, great to hear some obscure music from the past!

I loved this song when it came out, so I bought the album. The rest of the album is often interesting but not fantastic. I enjoyed reliving this one, JP.

My favourite part of this song is Nash the Slash's mandolin.

You are obviously not averse to reacting to Canadian bands so please I plead, for about the 20th time on various channels, that you listen to the seemingly forgotten rock group with the sometimes quirky lyrics, Max Webster. Kim Mitchell is the lead singer who would go on to great solo success in Canada and the U.S. Max Webster had a lot of great songs but begin with the super uptempo rocker High Class In Borrowed Shoes. The entire album of the same name, from 1977, is fantastic.

Kinda dragged and plodded on my phone. A trifle disappointed. Or maybe twas the playback. Had no idea they were folky mandolin- charged!? Glad I listened. Max Webster-In the Land of Giants Check checkcheck this out?!? Do it jp ;-)

Tuned in for the Star Trek reference, liked the intro, then slowly zoned out once the singing started. After the semi interesting start, where it could have gone anywhere, sadly it degenertated into that sappy, cheesy, north american rock style that just gives me the yawns. * For hi quality Star Trek fun, should check out: 'Where's Captain Kirk', by Spizzenergi. Or 'Five Year Mission', by The Spizzles. Same band, they changed their name a lot :) BTW, canada again, really!