COLD NOSE

When the secret history of rock 'n' roll is finally written, the music of Franco Falsini will need its own special appendix. The Italian guitarist and founder of the band SENSATIONS' FIX was never a celebrity (even in his own country), but he continues to maintain the lonely vigil of a true musical ascetic, with an artist's disregard for wider acclaim or passing trends.

Falsini's only solo album, the soundtrack to a never-released film about cocaine abuse, is spiritually linked to his larger body of work within the Fix, but stands apart in its home-grown electronic minimalism: a cult album from a cult figure already outside the glare of the Progressive Rock spotlight. It certainly doesn't sound cocaine-induced, consisting almost entirely of dreamlike arpeggiated guitars and synthesizers, gently rhythmic despite the lack of percussion. The mood is introspective, private, and often mesmerizing, beautifully so in the closing minutes of "Part III", when Falsini's wistful voice begins drifting into and out of the only genuine song on the album.

The music isn't easily located on the dominant synth-rock / space-rock axis of its time, in much the same way that Sensations' Fix never really fit into any convenient Prog Rock mold, least of all the pigeonhole of classic RPI. The only reliable point of reference is Falsini's unique guitar style, clearly modeled after ROBERT FRIPP but possessing a voice and texture all its own, instantly recognizable once heard.

I wouldn't exactly call it a timeless album: you can accurately carbon-date the effort by the half-life of its old-school analog equipment and production. But the music itself is ageless, sounding not unlike a whispered secret half-heard in passing, almost insubstantial and yet oddly indelible forty years later.