''City of Fear'' is the fourth album by FM, a

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

group from

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, released in 1980 on

Passport Records Passport Records was a U.S.-based independent record label that existed between 1973 and 1988. It was notable for popularizing such artists as Larry Fast, FM, Richard Barone, and Wendy O. Williams. It was distributed by Jem Records in the United ...

and distributed in Canada by

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

, catalogue number PB-2028, and in the USA on Passport distributed by

Jem Records Jem Records (also known as JEM Records) was a United States record label that existed from 1970 to 1988, at the time principally known as the parent company of Passport Records. The label was resurrected in 2013 as Jem Recordings. History Jem Re ...

, catalogue number PB-6004. It was produced by

Larry Fast Lawrence Roger Fast (born December 10, 1951) is an American synthesizer player and composer. He is best known for his 1975–1987 series of synthesizer music albums (''Synergy'') and for his contributions to a number of popular music acts, inclu ...

who was notable for his

Synergy Synergy is an interaction or cooperation giving rise to a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. The term ''synergy'' comes from the Attic Greek word συνεργία ' from ', , meaning "working together". History In Christia ...

series of electronic music albums. A remastered edition was released by Esoteric Records (ECLEC2383) on March 25, 2013.

Track listing

All compositions by FM ( Martin Deller,

Ben Mink Benjamin Mink (born January 22, 1951) is a Canadian songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer best known as a longtime collaborator of Canadian singer k.d. lang. He plays several string instruments, notably the guitar, violin, and the m ...

, Cameron Hawkins), all lyrics by Hawkins. ;Side one #"Krakow" – 4:37 #"Power" – 3:28 #"Truth or Consequences" – 4:13 #"Lost and Found" – 4:25 #"City of Fear" – 5:07 ;Side two #"Surface to Air" – 5:18 #"Up to You" – 4:21 #"Silence" – 3:22 #"Riding the Thunder" – 4:06 #"Nobody at All" – 4:09

Personnel

* Martin Deller –

Gretsch drums Gretsch Drums is a division of American musical instrument manufacturer Gretsch. The company was founded in Brooklyn, New York, in 1883. Gretsch drum kits have been used by many notable drummers including Max Roach, Tony Williams, Art Blakey, ...

Zildjian :''Zildjian leads here. For people with the surname, see Zildjian (disambiguation)'' The Avedis Zildjian Company, simply known as Zildjian (), is a musical instrument manufacturer specializing in cymbals and other percussion instruments. Founded ...

and

Paiste Paiste (English pronunciation: , ) is a Swiss musical instrument manufacturing company. It is the world's third largest manufacturer of cymbals, gongs, and metal percussion. is an Estonian word that means "shine". Apart from cymbals and gong ...

cymbals, glockenspiel, Moog percussion controller with

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

, PAiA programmable drum synthesizer, tympani *

– 5 string "bent" mandolin (electric), 5 string "Violite" (electric violin), 5 string viola (acoustic), 1912 "The

Gibson Gibson may refer to: People * Gibson (surname) Businesses * Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment * Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based * Gi ...

" mandolin (acoustic),

Fender amplifiers Fender amplifiers are a series of electric instrument amplifiers produced by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. The first guitar amplifiers attributed to Leo Fender were manufactured by the K&F Manufacturing Corporation (K&F) betwee ...

, vocals * Cameron Hawkins – lead vocals,

Mutron ''Musitronics'', often shortened to Mu-tron, was a manufacturer of electronic musical effects active in the 1970s. Founded by Mike Beigel and Aaron Newman, the company's products provided filtering and processing effects and were derived from s ...

and

Electro-Harmonix Electro-Harmonix (also commonly referred to as EHX) is a New York City-based company that makes electronic audio processors and sells rebranded vacuum tubes. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. It is best known for a series of gu ...

FX pedals, 9.95,

Prophet 5 The Prophet-5 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the American company Sequential. It was designed by Dave Smith and John Bowen in 1977, who used microprocessors, then a new technology, to create the first polyphonic synthesizer with full ...

, Minimoog, (Moog) Taurus pedals, ELKA (synthesizer),

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

grand (piano),

Rickenbacker Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. The company is credited as the first known maker of electric guitars – a steel guitar in 1932 – and today produces a range ...

bass, Polyfusion sequencer,

Larry Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

's Moog 15 (modular synthesizer),

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

Additional personnel *Pamela Silverstein – spoken word

Technical credits

*Produced by

*Engineered by Jim Frank and Charles Conrad, assisted by Scott Rea and Cliff Hodsdon *Production assistance by Ian Murray *Recorded at Soundstage, Toronto, Canada, and House of Music, West Orange, New Jersey, USA *Additional material recorded at Phase One, Toronto by Mark Wright *Mastered by Bub Ludwig at Masterdisk, New York City, USA *Synthy maintenance by Rob Onedera *Pre-production with Ed Stone, Ian Dunbar, Jim Frank, Ian Murray, Mark Wright *Art direction and design: Murray Brenman *Photography – cover: Eric Staller *Photography – insider cover: Paul Till *Photography – stand-ups: Bob Rock (the cover art features time lapse photography using life-size cardboard cut-out images of the group's members)

External links

Album information at Blacknoise website
1980 albums FM (Canadian band) albums Passport Records albums {{1980s-rock-album-stub