Search - Chill Faction :: Eggman On the Deuce and Other Stories (digipak)

Urban Melancholy

Eleanor Lance | WI | 12/11/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Chill Faction-Eggman On The Deuce and Other Stories is a masterpiece of urban melancholy.It's timeless,gritty,surreal,gripping,energetic and engaging.Lucky for those of us nostalgic fans, they resurrected this collection of songs by the inimitable Chill Faction.Whose masterful performances lay bare a synergy that runs rampant through their musicianship. In a time when we need more intelligent music like this that evokes universal themes of desolation and longing. There are so many tracks that thread this albums life force. WHENEVER WERE TOGETHER and CHRISTMAS IN THE WHOREHOUSE, are just a few that are provocatively memorable.The entire album summons forth the lost days of bands that can create a dramatically light and dark tapestry of emotion. SWEET AND SOUR SADNESS has the dire sound of a post-modern "Summertime"Larry Kirwan's vocals thrust at your heart with his earnest tone that rings of self-preservation.Dave Conrad's bass guitar and Thomas Hamlin's drums are hypnotic. Fred Parcell's trombone style has an extraordinary uniqueness. And Mike Fazio's soundscapes induced by both his dream like guitar and synthesizers forge the sound together and drag you into a world of vast and vivid projection. Somewhere there is a film that is should use this entire album as it's guiding soundtrack."

Hi-art with a decidedly funky feel

Paul Browse | US | 11/12/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Chill Faction spin deceptively complex psychedelic riffs and rhythms into eerie and shifting Kafka-esque dreamscapes. Some songs capture whimsy (Long Hot Summer) or bittersweet memories (Christmas In The Whorehouse), (Whenever We're Together) and others make you look over your shoulder to see who is lurking behind you (Hostage Of The Heart), (Nuclear Missiles), (42nd Street). All while never ever dropping the groove. You certainly can get exhausted by the sheer energy of this record. It never lets up. It begs you to get up and contort yourself. Try and sit still to Don't Fall In The Crack, Jack or Marilyn or Bride Of Jesus. You simply can't. Hostage of the heart is reason alone to listen to Eggman. Stunningly disturbing.



You can certainly dance to this record but you can also contemplate your future, or your past for that matter, probably at the same time. How many records do you have like this in your collection?



This band was an art band and even that moniker doesn't do them justice."

Essential listening

Hope Blister | USA | 11/12/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album was done in the mid 1980's and sounds more contemporary than the works of many of today's so-called "hipsters". Chill Faction was one of those groups far ahead of their time. The musicians are superb & have a sophistication not generally found in today's music. They seemed to have invented their own brand of music: literary, sophisticated, melodic, violent, wonderfully disturbing, bittersweet, complex, sinister. Unique. Not for the squeamish. This is essential listening.



Brilliant musicianship by one and all. David Conrad can certainly stand toe to toe with Jamaaladeen Tacuma or Mick Karn and the clever interplay between him and Thomas Hamlin on drums is a delight to savor. One of the tightest rhythm sections I have heard in the last 25 years. Mike Fazio's piercing guitar playing is years ahead of what came later in the 80's, 90's and even today. Certainly an admirer of Fripp, Rundgren & Hendrix, you can also hear a Steve Cropper mentality in his playing quite like John McGeough's wonderful guitar playing with Siouxsie & The Banshees. Larry Kirwan's vocals are very different from what most people know of him do today in Black 47. His urgency stands on par with Robert Smith circa The Cure years between Pornography and The Top and he stretches in angst-ridden leaps and bounds like a pissed-off Peter Hammill. Fred Parcell's electronic approach to trombone is in a class by itself. No one, and I mean no one sounds like him.



As the album progresses in chronological timeframe, so does the band's stretch into uncharted territory. You can hear in the beginning tracks the bands raw unproduced New York mindset not unlike Liquid Liquid, Bush Tetras, Television and Talking Heads (Affairs Of The Heart) (Down By The Waterfront) urging into something entirely new (You Send Me Like So Many Nuclear Missiles) (Hell Without You).



(Sweet & Sour Sadness Of Sunday Afternoons) and (Nuclear Missiles) have their non-stop eerie moments. The Beatles cover of I Am The Walrus has absolutely nothing to do with the original and somehow forges Van Der Graaf Generator with A Certain Ratio. In fact, the whole vibe of this album is one of an eerie sense of taking the best funk/punk elements of the first few brilliant A Certain Ratio or 23 Skidoo albums with Howard Devoto & Magazine's unique bent on post punk progressive and elaborating those elements with the art and power of Van Der Graaf Generator with of course, different instruments. Quite a feat considering no one from the 80's ever attempted this before. But the highlight of the album for me remains the weird atmospheric Hostage Of The Heart, an awesome number with mysterious hypnotic appeal and the arrangement, especially the drone-like guitar, reminds me of what Kitchens Of Distinction would do later in the eighties or Interpol is attempting even now. To me, it's on a par with Magazine's beautifully strange masterpiece Back To Nature on the Secondhand Daylight album. Chill Faction was a band of many talents but unfortunately did not continue. This collection is therefore to be treasured. Anyone interested in the annals of indy New York rock should not miss this."