ZIP TANG

— First review of this album —

The band's second effort 'Pank' is a really entertaining album filled with a cornucopia of impressions. Automatically searching for something comparable more or less Umphrey's McGee come into my mind when listening. First of all because of the fact that most of the songs are provided with a touch of jamming too. Deitrich Crashed My Enzo is a good example here. Basically a catchy song coupled with melody and rhythm variations - on top of it provided with a grooving jam section showing references to southern rock bands like The Allman Brothers Band as well as psychedelic patches. An exciting compilation of styles so to say.

The song title is weird though - probably they mean this sports car named Enzo Ferrari. And who is 'Deitrich'? In Germany we have a forename 'Dietrich'. A pun or lapse? Something which temporarily engaged me. Anyhow - they obviously operate with some kind of humour - best to point out with You Call This Art which starts (and ends) with laughing people. And the closing song Goodbye is their individual way to say farewell to the listener provided with marching drums and a pop styled mood reminiscent to The Beatles I would say.

However - jazzy portions are coming through all over, for example to recognize on Footprints - the drums and piano especially here. Marcus Padgett has a large share with his saxophone. He opens and closes the melancholic ballad One Last Beautiful Motion with a cool substantial contribution, an harmonic song with polyphonic vocals and floydy guitars. It's In My Head is an unusual blend of fusion and heavy psych and takes getting used to.

A punching bass line sends Katy to a heavy rocking and blues direction - but not that simple - a little bit avantgarde tinged which comes from some interesting saxophone dues once more. In a similar manner the album's title song is Zappa influenced. Cicada Jam irritates spiked with electronical experiments where the drums are perfectly imitating a train ride as for my impression. And finally I want to mention The Years dominated by duelling saxophone and guitar.

Some may come to the conclusion that this album is full of quite different music portions merged together by accident - quasi missing the 'golden thread'. Okay, if it is in that way - it's well done anyhow. ZIP TANG succeed to produce a varied output in any case and excellent musicianship is beyond dispute. Prog fans who like to listen to an eclectic mix of styles should take care of this - and won't regret.

Zip Tang are a recent addition to this site and came to my attention via the Bands Submissions email. They caught my attention mainly due to their cover version of "Tarkus" and I thought at the time "they're either very brave or stupid" but as the band admitted to me they are brave and stupid, however more of that later.

Zip Tang are a four piece and almost fit into the jazz fusion genre, mainly thanks to the fine sax playing of Marcus Padgett. In fact, the whole band are talented musicians, the guitar work of Perry Merritt also stands out. But what of the music, I hear you ask?

The opener "Tower of Tuna" is a humorous Zappa/Echolyn, jazz fusion sort of thing and is a good way to kick off. "Missed the Beginning" features Chili Peppers-style guitar , "Nothing Here" starts off with a lovely acoustic guitar intro, then mutates into something which reminds me of The Tangent. "With a Twist" is another funky number, this time reminiscent of It Bites. "Beta" is an excellent fusion style instrumental with some nice synth work.

This brings us to the aforementioned "Tarkus" cover. They have gone for the full works (when I was expecting an extract) and they certainly are brave, attempting a full-blown prog "epic", especially when they're not really a keyboard band. I can't really think of another prog band covering a prog epic like this, except Transatlantic and "In Held T'was In I", but they have managed to pull it off. They've been quite clever in slowing down the intro and playing the riff on the sax. This gives the whole thing more of a jazz feel. The fast section later on is also slowed down, and most of the keyboard solos are taken on either guitar or sax. Yes, they were potentially stupid in taking this on, but I reckon they've done a great job here. Some ELP fans may turn their noses up, but it's worth a listen

Overall a very promising start. As I've said, I detect influences from Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Tangent, It Bites and Frank Zappa, all thrown in with a bit of jazz fusion but they're all excellent musicians and the whole thing makes for an excellent debut CD.The only criticism I can make is that the vocals lack of bit of that elusive "something".

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