earl zinger Put Your Phazers On Stun And Throw Your Health Food Skyward (!K7/Fusion III) Rating: NNNN Rating: NNNN
Released as a mysterious six-song white label a few years ago, Put Your Phazers On Stun And Throw Your Health Food Skyward was alleged to have been assembled by legendary 60s New York hipster Earl Zinger, master of disguise and the missing link between Peter Tosh, Gil Scott-Heron and Shuggie Otis. Nice one. Zinger’s actually former Galliano frontman Rob Gallagher, who’s abandoned acid jazz for wisecracking left-field jazz dance. There’s a dancehall version of Blur’s Song 2 and Go Round, which pairs the hook from Badly Drawn Boy’s Once Around The Block with vocals from My Favourite Things. But the 18-track CD version of Put Your Phazers On Stun is hilarious listening just for the shots it takes at producers obsessed with the perfect beat. Songs like Last Of The Bassline Hunters and Saturday Morning Rush — hunting for records before your girlfriend’s sister’s wedding — skewer record geeks, while swinging cuts like Escape From Ibiza and Got To Get To Ibiza are funnier and funkier than they should be.
