THE ZIGZAG MANOEUVRE

Every time I play this album, I wonder how I did not include it in my list of favourite releases from 2020. It's an absolute blast, and from the moment the album starts with the gloriously upbeat and bonkers Londonderry Revolutionary, you know you're in for a trip. Ultimately, I think what kept this from my list was the horror that was 2020. In any other year, albums like this and Aksak Maboul's Figures would have been right near the top of any list I made. But in a year as insane and confounding as 2020, I think I shied away from the more wonderfully eclectic, explosive, and experimental music I would normally spend most time listening to. Indeed, I had Ping's album for review purposes for months, but every time I thought about listening to it for review, I found a reason to procrastinate and put it away for another day. And that is not fair at all on the music, and is far more an indictement of my listening preferences in 2020, than of the music of Ping.

So what is Ping? Well, I'm not sure you can pigeonhole their music, apart from to agree it is full of intensity and attitude, as it traverses terrain such as RIO, jazz, funk and punk and disco in a joyous combobulation of noise and melody, and discord and harmony. It reminds me a little of many of the Russian RIO and avant acts on the [addicted label] with it's almost schizophrenic approach to music, and disdain of genre borders and norms, My absolute favourite tracks are the opener and closer, which have surely been chosen for their positions due to their strength, and encapsulation of all that comes between. But there's genuinely not a weak or disinteresting track on the album. The album is certainly well-named, as it zigs and zags, with every zag and every zig keeping listeners on their toes, and fully engaged. It is not just the music, either, as the vocals can provide as much of a surprise. One could be mistaken for thinking more than one vocalist contributes to proceedings, as bass player Jørgen Greiner changes his voice, tone, accent and inflection depending on the character of the song, and characters within them,

I could make comparisons to Zappa, Cardiacs, Beardfish, Henry Cow, or fellow Norwegian weirdos, Major Parkinson, but none of these really give any true indication of the gloriously bonkers sound of The Zig Zag Manoeuvre. Through some complex and clever arrangements, the band take us one way then the next, with many an unexpected turn. Some very catchy melodies are present, but crash against deliberate dissonance and discord and Instrumental and vocal passages that almost sound out of tune or out of time. Except, of course, they're not - and it's nowhere near as challenging as that might make out. While not exactly radio-friendly, there's an almost pop like accessibility to Ping's avant leanings, That said, this is an album that is near impossible to listen to in the background, and why would you want to?