Earl Zinger aka Rob Gallagher
Intro
Electronica artist Earl Zinger is actually none other than Rob Gallagher, who formerly led the Talkin' Loud label's acid jazz band Galliano. He is also Gilles Peterson's main MC.
Know The Ledge profile
Okay, so here's the real deal. Zinger has, over the past couple of years, been releasing 7" records on his 'Red Egyptian' record label, which have attained somewhat of a cult status. He's recenlty released an album rediculously entitled 'Put Your Phasers On Stun Thow Your Healthfood Skyward', containing a litany of quirky tracks which cleverly and humourously recycle other songs, some well known, others not. With an abundance of cheeky word-play and conceptual innovations, and plenty of nods musically and lyrically to 'The Scene' thrown in, he's been pretty heavily promoted by the likes of Gilles Peterson, Straight No chaser magazine et al, and rightly so.
With Zinger up front on the mic, and Charlie Dark (of Attica Blues fame and spoken-word upstart) on the ones and twos, his first move on mounting the stage was to tongue-in-cheek take the piss out of Gillesy P (the night is 'Worldwide', Mr. Peterson's monthly eclectic excursion), followed by, in recognition of the fact that the crowd was somewhat sparse, joking that 'it's not quiet, it's intimate' causing chuckles all round and setting the mood for what was to come.
Music on the night consisted of a tour of most of the songs from the album plus a few extra tasty treats. 'Song 2wo' is a dub re-working of it's Blur thrash-pop namesake which is guaranteed to provoke delighted squeals of delayed recognition whenever played. 'On My Way Home' is poetic decriptiveness over a classic afro-funk riddim. 'Battle of the Mic' saw Zinger chatting, not for the last time in the evening, into a voice manipulator. Vocally transformed into something akin to a Disney's Chipmunk, accompanied by Dark sounding, at the opposite end of the vocal spectrum, like Jabba the Hut, the accompanying phat hip hop beat provided a hilarous contrast. 'Saturday Morning Rush' recounts the tale of a (all too familiar for some djs) frenzied hunt for an elusive Skitz 12" through the record shops of Soho. 'Escape from Ibiza' is another uptempo jazzy piss-take seeing Zinger attempting to match dj's to their pool size and parodying every aspect of the clubbers' island. 'Go Round' is a warm rolling piece of jazz-folk over the 'My Favourite Things' melody, and 'Galaxy' a take on the War disco/funk dancefloor stormer. Aforementioned non-album goodies comprosed of 'Girls on Coke', a narcotic version of Duran Duran's 'Girls on Film', and 'Can't Get You Out Of My Bed', a mutation of Kylie's pop hit lamenting the difficulty of ejecting the previous night's pull from one's sleeping quarters!
Throughout, silly crowd interaction and experimentations with aforementioned voice transformers were truly very funny, and Zinger's jester-like charm was warmly received by his audience. Zinger is a showman, an entertainer in the old sense of the word - the overall 'experience', connection with the crowd, and having fun all evidently important. A refreshing change in this day and age where bands sometimes can suffer from taking themsleves a little too seriously. Nu-cabaret, anyone? -- http://www.knowtheledge.net/Zinger.htm
Galliano
Galliano is a London based acid jazz group, started up in 1988. The original members were Rob Gallagher (vocals), Constatine Weir (vocals), and Crispin Robinson (percussion). Other important members include Valerie Etienne, who participated in the recording of all their CDs, along with other musicians such as Mick Talbot on keyboards and McKone Hernias on bass guitar.
Galliano achieved the peak of its success in 1992 with "The Plot Thickens", a major work that fuses the extreme harmonies and rhythms of jazz with up-to-the-minute urban soul on tracks such as "Twyford Down", with its numerous changes of tempo, or "Travels the road" and "Long time gone". --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galliano_%28band%29 [Mar 2006]
CDs
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Put Your Phazers on Stun Throw Your Health Food Skyward (2002) - Earl Zinger [Amazon.com]
Okay, so here's the real deal. Zinger has, over the past couple of years, been releasing 7" records on his 'Red Egyptian' record label, which have attained somewhat of a cult status. He's recenlty released an album rediculously entitled 'Put Your Phasers On Stun Thow Your Healthfood Skyward', containing a litany of quirky tracks which cleverly and humourously recycle other songs, some well known, others not. With an abundance of cheeky word-play and conceptual innovations, and plenty of nods musically and lyrically to 'The Scene' thrown in, he's been pretty heavily promoted by the likes of Gilles Peterson, Straight No chaser magazine et al, and rightly so. --know the ledge