Echoes and dust

Now, I hate Queen. I mean, if I had to list my top 5 most hated bands Queen would be 2nd only to The Feeling (who should suffer a slow torturous death!) the others being  Simply Red, UB40 and M People. However, when HP Zinker used them to describe their music you see what they mean.

HP Zinker existed in a world of their own, when the underground rock scene was all about 3 minute songs played using only power chords and distortion, HP Zinker were the antithesis to that. The path they chose to tread was one where each album had a song in four parts and where each song took a 5 minute jam to introduce itself.

Hovering was the pinnacle of their achievements. A crucial ingredient to this is the drumming of The Waz (David Wasick to his mum). On the first album, '...And There Was Light', guitarist Hans Platzgummer and bass player Frank Puempel had to make do with a drum machine (not the best replacement for Bonham's drumming on their cover of 'Dancing Days', but there you go), but by this, their third release, The Waz had been truly integrated into the band. Some may find the playing too much, but all the flourishes, rolls and double pedal drumming (I know, I know, but embrace the fear!) serve only to accentuate all the intricate riffs and solid bass lines.

First track 'Our Precious Love' states the bands intentions perfectly; this is going to be a prog album played loud! After three and a half minutes of build up you get rewarded with a groove so sweet you could wrap it up and sell it in a confectioners. However, as well as making you air drum like you're having a fit (I can still never get the off beat on the snare right), the main section of the song also presents the first hurdle with Zinker; Platzgummers voice. HP Zinker, you see, are from Austria (with the exception of The Waz - USA), and so on occasions it sounds like the lyrics are being sung by Herr Flick - "Vee avoid eeech uzzers eyeez" (Das Testament).

Another obstacle are some of the atrocious lyrics; "Fish are burning in my head"!? Mmmmmmm. But it must be made clear that on this album the vocals are secondary to the 'JAMMING, MAN'! A noise which conjures up an image of 3 men on stage, all with their eyes closed, looking up to the Gods and really FEELIN' IT!! Again, remember, this was at a time when most songs were short ditties and prog was as bad as the C word (not Cast by the way). So this was like a blast of fresh sea air in your face.

As with all the best prog albums there is the classic epic story - 'Das Testament' (last track on the original A side). A song in 4 parts, this tells of the horror of war and was inspired by the novel by _________. It's driven by some blistering guitar playing, which brings to mind J Mascis but with more of a groove, and some exciting time changes that totally take you off guard. This track is an overblown, indulgent, pretentious, glorious riposte to what was going on at the time. "I raise my hands and I throw my fear, right into those eyes so that they disappear" sings Platzgummer despairingly.

The first track on the B side is 'Abandoned Feeling'. A low dirge, driven by distorted bass and straight ahead drumming. The guitars here (unlike the rest of the album) are minimal and act as embellishment until the chorus (or the closest thing to a chorus!) where they rip through the song like chainsaw. As with the rest of the album, this song display> s it's metal influences proudly and loudly, and at the end you half expect Bruce Dickinson to enter on a rotating stage, wailing his heart out and grabbing his crotch. This should make you shit yourself laughing but somehow it bloody works.

The nearest comparison I can muster for this album would be King Crimson's "Red" - Wait, wait, Come back! What I mean is it exists using just guitar, bass and drums. There's no fancy schmancy keyboards here and no 12 minute drum solos played through a phaser. This is the sound of three instruments, a couple of amps and a couple of distortion pedals. A more contemporary comparison would be that of Dinosaur Jnr, but Zinker took what J Mascis had, put bigger balls on it and taught it a few jazz tricks.

You get the feeling that they played with an air of abandon and freedom. Almost; 'Who gives a fuck what we do, know ones listening anyway. So we might as well enjoy it and have a laugh at the same time' (In fact some of the introspective moments, you can imagine them bent double at the thought that some people would take it seriously - check out the gong at the end of 'The Floating Mind'. You can get none more Spinal Tap!) It's the sound of a band giving the bird to the charts and indulging themselves. This element was to disappear, along with bass player and founding member Puempel, on their 4th album 'Perseverance', which relinquished  the sound that was so dominant on Hovering in favour of a more straight ahead American Hard rock album.