Direct to Disc (FM album)
| Direct to Disc | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by FM | ||||
| Released | 1978 | |||
| Recorded | 1977 | |||
| Studio | Phase One Recording Studios, Toronto | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock | |||
| Length | 31:00 | |||
| Label | Labyrinth | |||
| Producer | Paul A. Gross | |||
| FM chronology | ||||
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Direct to Disc is the second album by FM, a progressive rock group from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, recorded late 1977 and released May 1978. It was also issued under the title Head Room. It was the first FM album to feature Ben Mink, who replaced founding member Nash the Slash on electric violin and electric mandolin, instruments which Nash also played.
It has been re-released for the first time in CD format on Esoteric Records in February 2013.
The album was made using the direct to disc recording method, in which recording tape is not used. This method requires that the group perform two 15-minute sides live in the studio with no overdubs. The recording is mixed live and transcribed to the master disc as it is being performed. This was a briefly popular format in the 1970s, and like all albums made this way, it was a limited edition, because only so many copies can be pressed from the master disc.
The album was mostly instrumental, consisted of one piece on each side, and was issued on a small label called Labyrinth Records, catalogue number LBR-1001, which suggests it was likely the label's first (and possibly only) release. It was well received by critics who compared the first side to a blend of Yes, King Crimson, and Lighthouse, while the second side took on a jazz feel, concluding with the sound of an unusual instrument: an alpha wave brain monitor plugged into a synthesizer, translating drummer Martin Deller's live brainwaves into a throbbing hum.
The fantasy cover art by Paul Till shows a warrior (possibly from the distant past, or the distant future, and possibly female) gazing into a portal and seeing a green glowing vacuum tube in the foreground, superimposed over the warrior's face. The concept references the album's use of older, but not obsolete, and (arguably) superior recording technologies: tube amplifiers, and the direct to disc recording process.
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