Alex Falcone shows that even with a receding hairline, you can be cool, you can be hip. You can record a cracking melodic rock album.
With a little help from your friends.
The credibility factor doesn't come much better than this - James (HOL) Christian, Doogie (Malmsteen/Rainbow)
White and Kee (Europe) Marcello all make major contributions to
'Aphasia'. The recording is essentially a collection of tracks written by Falcone while he was a member of a variety of related bands over the years, most notably, Heavens
Touch and Wind. Apparently, Falcone was inspired by Tom Galley's semi legendary 'Phenomena' trilogy, and yes, there are clear echoes here.
And, as noted above, Falcone wisely went for talented, high profile players to add a level of professionalism and credibility.
Falcone fills his songs with huge, melodicentric chunks of programmed synths, manicured hooks and massed female bgvs, and wraps these up tightly in huge swathes of keyboard velvet, punctuated by short bursts of melodically inclined axe soloing.
It's a hard album to pin down.
Just when you think you've tuned in, it accelerates away in another direction. No bad thing, holds your interest, keeps you guessing.
Occasionally it veers into
Zeno like rock opera territory - theatrical delivery coupled with a cast of thousand choruses. Like opener, '
Heat', a memorably melodic track that comes bounding in athletically, rattles through lithe verses, then accelerates to an aurally adhesive hook.
Falcone wisely plays his aces - Christian,
White and Marcello - early on.
Christian handles the grammatically questionable
'Guns In The Holsters' with aplomb, adding a touch of class to a busy, pounding, resounding melodic rock song with a sweet hook.
Kee Marcello's tight, measured lead axe soloing neatly counterpoints '
Sail Away's lilting, elegantly orchestral arrangement.
There's much more of a metal feel to
'Race With The Spirits', a brilliantly grandiose, pompous rock song, sleekly metallised, driven on by
White's passionate delivery and a relentless beat.
Falcone doesn't quite reach the same heights, but he's no mean vocalist, with an individual style, tailored to suit his music.
And that's the key. It's as a producer and a writer that he excels.
Good album. Worth tracking down.
Written by
Brian Sunday, October 11, 2009
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