Album Description: "Figments"- Produced and co-written by Anton Fig, reflects his influences from growing up in Cape Town, South Africa to living and working as a successful drummer in New York City. Singers, musicians and special guests include Richie Havens, Brian Wilson, Ivan Neville, Sebastian Bach, Ace Frehley, Al Kooper, Chris Spedding, Donald 'Duck' Dunn, Chip Taylor, Blondie Chaplin, Paul Shaffer, Randy Brecker, Chris Botti and Richard Bona. The album conveys many different musical settings with styles ranging from Pop to World - with detours in -between.
Blondie Chaplin shines with Lead vocal on 3 tracks!! Anton Fig is an ever-reliable drummer with a great feel. Glad to see him put together an album of his own after playing on so many others.
For Blondie Chaplin fans, this album is a must have. What a voice the man has. Blondie has co-written and takes the lead vocal & guitar duties on three songs - Home, Hand On My Shoulder and Utopia. It is also worth noting that the great Brian Wilson provides former bandmate Chaplin with his usual exquisite background vocals on the track Hand on my Shoulder. It seem just like yesterday that Blondie sang lead on the Beach Boys own Sail On Sailor...
Blondie and Anton had previously played together as 2/3 of a band called Skollie. Skollie put out a great album titled Ostrich Man in 1992, but it was sadly only released in their home country of South Africa and is impossible to find.
It's really a shame that Blondie's solo albums are all out of print or were never released in the first place. He is truly a talented songwriter and vocalist and this album is worth the price just for his three songs alone.
Probably also worth mentioning that the Brian Wilson background harmonies from the Hand On My Shoulder track are featured acapella in a bonus track at the end of this album...
A Desert Island CD I was recently turned onto Figments by a friend and immediately bought it. What a great album - definately one of my 20 'desert island' faves. Cool songs, lush production and great performances make this really rewarding. Check out the 'hidden track' for a nice surprise. As a professional musician I admired the work but my girlfriend, who has no musical ability to speak of, loved it too - highly recommended!
Figments is a gem! Although Anton is known primarily as a drummer, this album displays a whole other side to him. Beautiful production and compostions make this album appealing to people beyond the drummer genre. In fact Anton's drumming is somewhat understated here - a testimony to his ability to hold back and play what is right for the music. This album is packed with beautiful music and although it covers a few genres, all the styles hang together - with brilliant performances from guest stars Brian Wilson, Richie Havens, Ivan Neville, Ace Frehley, Sebastian Bach, Blondie Chaplin and host of great musicians. In my opinion this is a must listen CD!
Bland, Boring, Uneven... I pretty much agree with what a reviewer wrote below: "For an album that's supposed to be about a drummer, the tracks display a surprising lack of imagination when it comes to percussion. What's worse, even though there really is no "theme" to the album, the Ace/Sebastian song sounds really out of place. Ace's solo is horrible to boot.
The only bright spot I can find is the varied vocal talent.
Don't buy this album if you are looking for new or exciting percussion."
CD by a Drummer that's not a Drummer's CD On the upside the recording was executed beautifully. Very rich quality with tremendous depth. On the downside however, the songs were not interesting to me. I've seen Anton play and he has so much more to offer as a player than is conveyed here. Most of these tunes are slow to moderate tempo with no explosive quality. The effort reminds me of what Narada Michael Walden did in the 70s and 80s. A world class player delivers popish, moderately hip compositions that don't showcase the players' talents. The problem is that as pop tunes, these don't stand up and they aren't saved by great instrumental performances. Admittedly, I have a preconception that in the tradition of Buddy Rich, Billy Cobham, Lenny White, Omar Hakim, etc., recordings released by great drummers, ought to have standout drum performances. Anton is great, you should see him live.
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