Sensations’ Fix: Finest Finger (1976)

Sensations’ Fix was an Italian band that gave us the ever wonderful and mindblowing electronic/prog album Fragments of Light in 1974. Two albums later, they gave us Finest Finger. The band still consists of guitarist/synthesist/vocalist Franco Falsini, bassist Richard Ursillo, and drummer Keith Edwards, but now they added a second keyboardist named Steve Head. Now I really can’t understand why on Earth the band needed a second keyboardist when this album concentrated more on the music (and the guitar) and less on the electronics than Fragments of Light. Still the album is quite good, although in a more song-oriented manner.

The albums opens up with “Strange About Your Hands”, a nice catchy number, but because it’s a vocal song, the vocals aren’t the best part of the band. Still a good number. The next is an instrumental piece called “Just a Little More on the Curve”, which harkens more or less to Fragments of Light with more great spacy synthesizers. The next two are more guitar-oriented instrumental pieces, “Yardbirds Dream” and “Map” before coming to another vocal piece, the almost new-wavish “Boat of Madness”. I really dig the electronic effects played off an EMS Synthi A at the end.

“The Left Side of the Green” kicks off side two, and although there’s some vocals, it’s a largely instrumental piece. The title track again attempts to harken back to the old sound of Fragments of Light, although with vocals. Probably one of the better vocal numbers on this album. The album ends with another instrumental “Into the Memory”. One thing I noticed is about half of Finest Finger has vocals (while Fragments of Light only had two songs with vocals), and as I said before, the vocals aren’t the best part of the band, but at least the music itself is good. I don’t think this album had been reissued on CD, you’ll have to get it on LP. But it features a gatefold, inside includes a grainy photo sure to please any vintage keyboard nut out there. Basically the photo features the band performing, and in the keyboard department I see a MiniMoog, an Eminent (looks like a Hammond organ, but it sounds like a string synth) and an EMS Synthi A.

While I don’t feel this album is as good as Fragments of Light, it’s still an album worth having. Just expect a more song-oriented and guitar-driven album and you’re fine. Newcomers will obviously need to start with Fragments.
– Franco Falsini: guitar, synthesizers, keyboards, vocals
– Richard Ursillo: bass
– Keith Edwards: drums
– Steve Head: keyboards, synthesizers