BLACK NOISE

Guilty pleasures don't get much guiltier than this prime slice of Canadian Prog Rock. And not only guilty, but hereby convicted in the court of hindsight and sentenced to a slow, painless death by analog nostalgia.

Any overview of the music is going to read like a damning litany of Progressive sins: the ham- fisted sci-fi themes (including a song titled "Phasors On Stun", complete with Star Trek sound effects); the cheesy synthesizer runs (left over from the last Rick Wakeman album); and other assorted transgressions against good taste, like a violin/mandolin player with the dubious nom-de-prog of Nash the Slash, who would later tour alongside Gary Numan while swathed head-to-toe in surgical bandages, like Claude Rains portraying "The Invisible Man" (take a look at his undisguised mug shot on the inner LP sleeve to see what he was hiding...and why).

The musicianship is what saves the album, and the contagious songwriting. Every track has its hook, and every hook is catchy as hell. Nash the Slash (real name Jeff Playman, which apparently lacked the necessary rock star cachet) was a talent to be reckoned with, always challenging keyboard wizard Cameron Hawkins with his virtuoso electric violin solos, most effectively in the ten-minute title track. And Martin Deller was one of the smoothest drummers this side of Bill Bruford or Curt Cress, practicing an assertive yet swinging style that never failed to rock, even at its most subtle.

I loved the album as a kid, when I was too young to know any better. But only now, as a more jaded adult, can I fully appreciate its proggy charms, precisely because of (and not despite) all the dated clichés. It helps, of course, to have been there when the album was new. But, unlike a lot of music from the mid-1970s, the FM debut can still be heard without prejudice.