Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Falcone, Alex
Label: Rock Royce Records
Release: 2009
Runtime: 48:34
Rating: 3.5/5
Alex Falcone is an up-and-coming keyboardist from Trieste who has made a name for himself over the years as a member of Heaven’s Touch, W.I.N.D, Stargazer and Holy Grail. Lately, though, he’s been most active as a member of Sweet Lorraine, a Uriah Heep tribute band from Trieste. Alex has always been a passionate fan of the legacy of legendary melodic and classic rock bands, led by Rainbow, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Whitesnake, and you can hear it in his keyboard playing too, which is heavily influenced by keyboard greats like Ken Hensley, Jon Lord, Tony Carey and David Rosenthal. So it’s no surprise that he’d long wanted to make a solo album that would scoop up all those influences with a big ladle and double as a bow to those greats.
“AphasiA” is Alex’s first solo album and also an ambitious melodic rock project, inspired by the cult project Phenomena, which brought together names like John Wetton, Glenn Hughes, Brian May, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray, etc. Like Tom Galley before him, though on a much smaller scale, Alex has lured in some truly dazzling names from the international melodic hard rock scene. Standing out among them are vocalists James Christian (House Of Lords) and Doogie White (ex-Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen, Praying Mantis, Cornerstone), guitarist Kee Marcello (ex-Europe, K2, Easy Action) and bassist Alessandro Lotta (ex-Rhapsody).
With names like these, the album is packed with quality doses of melodic hard rock, since every guest brought the influences of their (former) bands to individual tracks. Alex is excellent throughout on his wide range of keyboards, whether it’s the traditional sounds of Hammond organs, Mini Moog, electric piano or more modern synths. The album is teeming with neoclassical solos from under Alex’s and Marcello’s fingers. Lush symphonic arrangements give the album sonic breadth, while individual tracks leave enough room for a few extra instrumental flourishes, such as violin and saxophone, so it all doesn’t come off too straight-laced. The romantic lyrics are, with few exceptions, pretty AOR-cliché, dealing with broken hearts, eternal longing and sudden bursts of big optimism, when the protagonist, after all that heartache, suddenly gets so much energy that he could conquer “the whole world”. Alex is a master of his instrument, but when he starts singing, it would be better to leave all the vocals to his prestigious guests, because his singing is downright annoying in places. Luckily, he’s in the minority as lead vocalist for most of the album, since on the better tracks the vocal duties are shared by Messrs. Christian and White.
After a short intro followed by the boisterous “”Heat”, the album doesn’t open all that promisingly, apart from some playful mini moog tomfoolery and quality backing vocal harmonies, since Alex’s hair-metal-style rasping, raspy voice is a pretty unpleasant choice. Things more or less get better from there, though some experiments are rather unnecessary, like the cover of The Sweet’s “Alexdander Graham Bell”. The album’s high points are the very good melodic rock/AOR numbers like “Guns in the Holsters” with excellent singing from Christian and energetic neoclassical bits on keys and guitar, the Dio-era-Rainbow throwback “Racin’ With the Spirits”, where the ever-convincing Doogie White shines, the Heep-style “Ridin’ On”, “Why”, crowned with pompous orchestral arrangements, and “Screamin’ for You”, a reworking of a track from Alex’s old band Heaven’s Touch, where you can also pick up some Journey influences. The closing ambient instrumental “Aphasia”, with its mighty orchestral curtains and a heart-wrenching guitar solo, shows that Alex also likes to listen now and then to musicians outside his usual melodic hard rock horizon, like Mike Oldfield. For all the considerable lack of originality, you really can’t accuse the album of sonic stiffness. The production is also tailored so that there’s a big sonic emphasis on the synthesizer backdrop, which was typical of the eighties, when most of Alex’s favorites enjoyed their greatest commercial success.
Alex has every reason to be very pleased with what he’s achieved on “AphasiA”, since with the help of prestigious international guests he’s managed to create a convincing blend of quality melodic hard rock where the influences of most of his favorite musicians shine through the whole way. Anyone who likes the same or similar bands Alex grew up on will enjoy most of the tracks, though they won’t exactly have any great revelations either. A few smaller things around production consistency would definitely be worth polishing, since at times it feels like he’s torn between the traditional sound of the seventies and eighties and a more modern approach, if he wants to hold his own against the best contemporary names in melodic rock. For starters, I’d warmly recommend he steer clear of the mic as much as possible and leave it entirely to the guest vocal pros. It’ll definitely be interesting to see whether Alex’s “AphasiA” gets a follow-up down the line, since this is a project with great potential that could yield even more convincing results. I wish him a heaping basket of luck with his future musical plans.
Lineup
Alex Falcone – keyboards, vocals
James Christian – vocals
Doogie White – vocals
Luca Gasparini – vocals
Kee Marcello – guitar
Marco Liziero – guitar
Stefano Caucich alias Mr. Rock – guitar
Dave White – guitar
Davide Castagna – guitar
Lorenzo Cucut – guitar
Walter Pod – drums
Marco Bertetti – drums
Alessandro Lotta – bass guitar
Stefano Simoni – bass guitar
Mike Tropper – bass guitar
Sandra Brus – violin
James Thompson – saxophone
Production
Alex Falcone
Tracklist
1. Sunrise (intro)
2. Heat
3. Guns in the Holsters
4. Sail Away
5. Racin’ with the Spirits
6. Ridin’ On
7. Why
8. Emerald
9. Angel Blue
10. Screamin’ For You
11. Alexander Graham Bell
12. AphasiA
