Short, punchy, and fun, King Gizzard gives a more matured take on their early surf rock sound. Such a sunny treat on this Christmas Eve. Don’t say King Gizz & The Lizard Wizzard never gave you anything. Just in time for Krimbo, the unstoppably prolific Australian eccentrics have done it again, dropping not one but two new albums on their Bandcamp page.
First and foremost of the two is Teenage Gizzard, a collection of early non-album singles and rarities that date back to 2010 and 2011, even before their debut album. Of course, for those who can’t get enough of KG in performance, there’s also Live in London ’19, the latest in a series of self-explanatory concert recordings they’ve dropped this year. You can check them both out below, or click through if you’d like to buy them. Not that you have to shell out: The band have also started up their own Bootlegger page, allowing anyone to download these discs (and several more) and release them — as long as they share. Here’s how they put it:
“Yo indie labels, bootleggers, fans, weirdos. We’ve got a deal for ya… If anyone wants to release these albums, you’re free to do so. Below you’ll find links to audio master files and cover art. Feel free to get creative with it if you like — it’s yours. Only deal is you’ve gotta send us some of them to sell on Gizzverse.com — whatever you feel is a fair trade is cool with us. Ideas: double LPs, 7”, remix, reimagined cover art, bizarre-looking wax, live show box sets, tapes. Or keep it simple — that’s totally OK. Anyone keen?!”
I’m sure they’ll have no trouble finding takers. As for me, I’ll be spending some quality time with these albums over the next few days — and into the new year. Although I’ve been a fan of KG&LW for years now, I’ve resolved that 2021 is going to be the year I go deep into the their back catalogue and truly embrace my inner lizard. Or wizard. Or whatever. Anyway, enjoy.
Tracks 1-8 recorded some time in 2010 in Angelsea, Victoria, Australia Tracks 9+10 recorded some time in 2011 in Carlton, Victoria, Australia Mixed by Stu Mackenzie
Half Truths is out today! I’m excited to see the singles I’ve released have a little family around them, they feel like they are at home now. They were all written in a similar time and I see them as me throwing off expectations I had of who I am as a person, woman, what my music is meant to be, what life is meant to be. I hope they can bring something new and cathartic to your worlds.
Newcastle-singer songwriter based Grace Turner’s ‘Half Truths’ is a poetic six-song collection that cuts through the noise, making sense of her thoughts by simply singing them aloud.
Powerful and poetic is Grace Turner’s “Half Truths”, her first EP released August 7th, 2020. Written and recorded over the past three years in collaboration with good friends, this six-song collection sets Turner apart, cutting through the noise and making sense of her thoughts by simply singing them aloud. “I wrote ‘Disdain’ while driving and singing and crying – a terrible combination. I wasn’t driving anywhere in particular, just to feel like I was physically able to leave what I was going through in my life. The original opening line was ‘I want to watch the blood drain from my body’. I sung it live once and my Dad was in the crowd and I just couldn’t do it, so I found a new line which I think is better anyways.
Though based in Newcastle, Australia, Turner wrote and recorded Half Truths in a variety of locations, from bedrooms to studios. And even still, the EP is remarkably cohesive, with key embellishments from her friends Mat Taylor and Shanna Watson, among others; glueing it all together is Turner’s trademark lyricism and self-introspection. “I write music because of the continual untangling of mind, emotions, experience and trying to understand the world at all its micro, meso and macro levels. Sometimes I feel with this collection of songs I am earnestly screaming something at the world and at the same time trying to take it all back again,” Turner says.
Intensely personal, Half Truths echoes Turner’s sentiments and intent. The EP begins poetically and drum-driven with “Disdain,” sparking the vision of a late night drive, and the feeling of darkness dissipating, replaced by some sense of gratitude for the ordinary. ‘Disdain’ is such an intense word and meaning and I’m glad to have gotten it into a song. To think of oneself as unworthy. Eventually I took it to a jam with my drummer and he encouraged me a lot that it was a keeper. My guitarist wrote the killer riff for this one. We think it’s so good that when we were in the post production phase of making the record we decided to repeat it after every vocal chorus making it a kind of instrumental chorus. I think it really makes the song.
The chords don’t ever change in this one and melodically it’s pretty subtle in its movement. In post production we also decided to cut the band out in the bridge. I like bringing more intensity to the line ‘what a time to be alive, steadily walking towards our demise’. It feels pretty apt for 2020. I like having a heavy song lyrically that is up beat, it’s really cathartic to play this one with the band. It’s one of my favourite tracks off the record and I’m glad that it’s become a favourite for people too.”
Standout track “Half Light” is instrumentally steady, while Turner belts a brilliant kind of diary entry about the way life is often made up of parts that don’t always fit together. And triple-j featured “Dead or Alive” brings the EP to its most upbeat point; though the lyrics are relative dark, the danceable chorus acts as a push out of that darkness and into warmer, brighter days.
“I chose the title Half Truths as I was going through such a turbulent time and the songs were written whether I stood by what they meant or not, they were spat out of me. I was shedding off expectations of who I thought I was as a musician, woman, friend, lover; questioning it all,” Turner says of the EP. While the six songs on Half Truths do question the world extensively, they also powerfully declare hope for the future. Ending with these words on “Get Your Head Straight,” “try to be good try to be kind, do your best to find peace of mind,” Grace Turner leaves us, and herself, in the sunlight.
Experience Half Truths wherever you listen to music, and take a peek into the full EP
Grace Turner “Half Truths” Released on: 2020-08-07
For their second EP Push/Pull,Sweater Curse really come out of their shell, amplifying their faint post-punk tinges and sky-high pop hooks. The EP was promoted with singles “All The Same” and “Close,” the band’s two best songs to date. While “All The Same” is a peek into their dynamic, sharper side, “Close” features tried-and-true, big-hearted indie rock. This is the meat and potatoes of any melancholy Australian indie rock band.
But for a promising group like Sweater Curse, this is their victory lap. It’s a stunningly pretty, widescreen tune (written with the help of fellow Aussie indie rocker Alex Lahey), begging to be played a hundred times over, no matter how up or down you’re feeling. Vocally, Monica Sottile goes the extra mile, framing not just each line, but every word with the perfect, affecting cadence.
Probably best known as a member of Muncie Girls, Lande Hekt first caught our ear with last year’s EP, “Gigantic Disappointment”. That release was recorded in the Adelaide Hills, and when returning to Australia to tour earlier this year, Lande went back to the studio, and working with producer, Ben David, put down the tracks that make up her debut solo album, Going To Hell. The record will be released in January next year, and this week Lande has shared the first taste of it, in the shape of new single, “Whiskey”.
The first song that Lande has shared as an openly gay person, like much of Going To Hell, Whiskey focuses in on the experience of coming out. As Lande explains, Whiskey is, “about learning how to come to terms with being gay or, more accurately, realising that pretending you’re not gay can’t go on forever“. While there’s inevitable difficulties in coming out, here Lande seems to focus on the huge positives, think about, “how there were so many things that didn’t feel right“, and the realisation of the relief of living your own truth. Musically, Lande seems to borrow from a vast array of influences from the driving guitars that are pure Sharon Van Etten to the easy vocal style and the shimmering outro The Twilight Sad would be proud of.
The track concludes with Lande’s repeated pronouncement, “is it the feeling of not having to pretend?”, arriving like a striking realisation that happiness lies in understanding the freedom being yourself can bring.
Ahead of the release of her debut solo album Going To Hell, Muncie Girls’ Lande Hekt unveiled her knockout single Undone. The incredible harmonies, crashing drum cymbals and fiery riffs go hand in hand with the relatable, regret-fuelled lyrics. Describing the track, Lande says: ‘This one is about feeling sorry for yourself when you break up with someone that you weren’t even going out with.’
We’ve all been there.
Going To Hell is out January 22nd via Get Better Records.
King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard return with new album “K.G.”, their sixteenth since forming in 2010. In the wake of a global pandemic, it’s a collection of songs composed and recorded remotely after the six members of the band retreated to their own homes scattered around Melbourne, Australia.
“We’ve been busy… I think?”
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard guitarist Joey Walker is underselling the freak rock band’s pandemic pivot – a year’s output that (so far) includes two concert films, two live albums, four soundboard show recordings slash charity fundraisers, and now their 16th studio album, ‘K.G.’. speaking from his home studio – a prim, soundproofed room with a bookshelf peppered with Penguin classics, and a print of Henri Matisse’s 1910 painting Dance, a once-controversial ode to ecstatic bacchanalia. The fine art is a far cry from the six-piece’s lysergic tour posters, usually made by Jason Galea, and Walker’s listening habits reflect this band-divergent attitude – he says he doesn’t listen to “rock music”, preferring techno, house and “I’m gonna sound like a fuckin’ wanker, but jazz and all that dumbass shit”.
Staring down the void left by the Gizzard’s cancelled tours this year, Walker sank thousands of dollars (“more than I’ve ever spent on any musical instrument”) into learning modular synthesis. He swivels his webcam around to show NME the mess of wires that he’s “just constantly fucking fiddling with”. That feverishness extends to the guitarist’s personality, who in conversation darts between ideas like a moth flitting from bulb to bulb. “My disposition is more traditional, neurotic and shattered as a musician. I question everything,” Walker says.
The room he sits in was one of six home studios in which Gizz recorded ‘K.G.’, thanks to Melbourne’s punishingly strict lockdown. Forced individual home recording scuttled an initial plan to develop the album out of live jams, exploring elements of Afrobeat with acoustic microtonal instruments. Walker and scraggly-haired frontman Stu Mackenzie both had cushy spaces in which the band had previously begun or finished material, but the others didn’t.
“It was definitely a challenge for them,” Walker says. “Cavs [drummer Michael Cavanagh], he’d always had to rely on Stu or myself to record him because he didn’t have the know-how. Forced isolation meant he got a studio going, worked out Ableton and started from zero, recording his drums. You can kind of hear it on the album – there are some songs where the drum takes are a bit ‘how-you-goin’, at least sonically.” ‘K.G.’ is subtitled ‘Explorations Into Microtonal Tuning, Volume 2’ – marking it as a sonic sequel to their first experiment with the notes between the notes, 2017’s ‘Flying Microtonal Banana’. The major change on the new record is the use of acoustic microtonal instruments (“just shitty acoustic guitars with modded frets”) on several songs, bending the record closer to its Turkish and Middle Eastern antecedents. But Walker is careful not to identify any specific point of reference.
“We actively don’t look too much to the microtonal world for reference, because I feel like then it would just be the same as that. At least to us, it’s not as interesting. It’s about using [microtones] as a tool to make music that you would already make,” he explains. Indeed, the result sounds more like the band aggregating their work of the last five years – polymetric rhythms, hard rock, funk and folk – rather than disappearing down a new stylistic hole. The guitarist is responsible for the album’s only step into truly foreign territory: ‘Intrasport’, a “dirty Bollywood” banger Walker fiddled into existence during the early weeks of March. He acknowledges that to some fans, this lack of reinvention is technically a disappointment.
“If we don’t do something different, people are like, ‘What are you doing?’ But that’s always gonna happen, which is cool. It’s cool how divisive Gizz is,” Walker says.
The band’s lyrics have also undergone a subtle shift. The sci-fi apocalypse at the core of their earlier music (think ‘Murder Of The Universe’) has slowly morphed into our real, multi-faceted armageddon: the climate crisis, ongoing impacts of colonisation, and now a global pandemic (“I think you can draw a line through those,” Walker says). It first became more apparent on 2019’s ‘Infest The Rat’s Nest’, which paired thrashy aggression with doom-laden warnings about rising temperatures.
But 2020’s downward force brings the band’s social consciousness to the forefront of ‘K.G.’: Walker’s own ‘Minimum Brain Size’, written following the Christchurch shootings, excoriates the right-wing radicalisation of men on the internet; keyboardist Ambrose Kenny Smith’s goofy ‘Straws In The Wind’ is a self-described ‘Sign ‘O’ The Times’ (“Straws in the wind, is it all ending?… I can hear hell’s kitchen and they’re singing hymns”).
“There’s definitely a social tip to the Gizz thing, and obviously climate change is a big part of it,” Walker says. “We try not to be too didactic in how we go about it, though there probably are times where it [could] be. We try to bury it in metaphor and other shit.” A glance at the band’s dedicated fan pages on Facebook and Reddit (populated by a total of 74,000 users) would suggest the metaphors have the desired obfuscating effect – it’s the science fiction “Gizzverse” fans tend to dissect, not so much the sociopolitical substance.
Gizz fans have earned comparisons to The Grateful Dead’s for their similar breathless devotion to the band’s prolificacy and relentless touring. The combination of both those things, Walker says, “creates two parallel universes whereby a fan of King Gizzard can like and love studio records – or not. For the nots, the notion of us as a live band is a completely different story”.
The band mythologised their own love of the road twice this year – once in the immersive concert film Chunky Shrapnel, and on ‘K.G.’’s ‘Oddlife’: “No concept of geography / I wake up and I’m still fatigued / I’m drinking ’til I’m dead asleep”. But inevitable burnout claimed its first victim this year in second drummer and manager Eric Moore, who stepped away from the band in August to focus on their label Flightless Records. Though vague on the details when pressed, Walker says it was “definitely a group decision” that had actually been made in late 2019.
“It was just the endpoint of a really good conversation we all had,” he says. “[Eric] felt like he was wearing too many hats. Who knows what will happen in the future or whatever. I think he felt that he needed to focus on less than three things that were directly related, but also cancel each other out in a weird way.”
Closing in on their 10th anniversary, the band had previously decided 2020 would mark a final touring push before committing to a couple of years of studio work – but because of the pandemic, they’re calling this year their “hiatus”. Yes, really. The Gizzard machine, as Walker calls it, will have a “big year of output” in 2021 – even by their standards – with what the guitarist believes will be their most divisive music yet.
“Part of me thinks it’s the best thing we’ve ever done. And part of me thinks it’s the worst,” he laughs.
Walker won’t dish on the details, though he uses 2020’s de facto word of the year to describe the material: unprecedented. A spiritual sequel to Chunky Shrapnel is also planned, set to present new versions of forthcoming material: “Everything’s been done in terms of a music documentary and live albums or whatever it’s going to be, but there’s a certain distilled thing we’re trying for that we really haven’t seen.”
Not everyone might love King Gizzard’s music, but the band’s work ethic – and their penchant to laugh in the face of the modern music industry’s highly ritualised album cycle – commands grudging respect. Theirs is an ethos that wouldn’t die with the project, even if the Gizzard machine broke underneath the weight of its own output.
“The sheer fact that we wanted to put out heaps of music meant that we just didn’t work for heaps of people. Labels didn’t want to touch us. And if they did, they would try and put their label-y thing on it. We just operate outside of that,” Walker declares.
Another fantastic Australian band that has set the standard for work ethic in the studio over the past few years, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard kept their fans satisfied with two live albums released their year in Chunky Shrapnel and Live in San Francisco ’16. It was the surprise release of K.G. in late November, however, which reminded fans of how creative and innovative this band can be. The songs heard on K.G. made for a noticeable and enjoyable change-up from the more intense, hard-rock sounds and styles heard on their last few studio projects, thanks in large part to the band utilizing quarter-tone tuning and notation from microtonal scales often heard in Indian classical music. The combination of their psychedelic styles mixed with Eastern influences made K.G. quite the mesmerizing cyclone of peak rock and roll excellence.
“If Gizzard stopped tomorrow, each of us would just make music ourselves the very next day. It’s a full-time job, in a dope way.” King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard’s ‘K.G.’ out now
Quivers make cathartic guitar pop that jangles and shimmers somewhere between 1980s Australia and 1990s America. Championing our favourite up-and-coming artists has always been the foundation of Turntable Kitchen. Over the course of more than 100 releases, we’ve released debut wax from bands like MØ, Arlo Parks, No Vacation, Gallant, Tei Shi, Cathedrals, The Record Company, Crumb, Tender, and so so many more incredible rising bands.
Rising Melbourne-based Quivers captured the attention late last year with a pair of incredibly catchy, captivating singles: “You’re Not Always On My Mind” and “When It Breaks.” Fully formed and with a knack for easy, upbeat song writing, we immediately knew they were something special. In fact, we’ve been “all in” on them since that first listen. Back in January we were honoured to release their first ever vinyl single (sold out) and now we’re proud to share their contribution to our SOUNDS DELICIOUS series.
They selected R.E.M.’s “Out of Time” for their contribution to the series, flipping the script on tracks like “Shiny Happy People” (a sprawling psychedelic vibe here); shedding off some of the jangle to reimagine classics like “Losing My Religion” and transforming the cult classic “Country Feedback” into a gorgeous and stripped down piano ballad.
Quivers’ version of “Out of Time” is only available by subscribing to the SOUNDS DELICIOUS vinyl record club.
Quivers got to choose a ‘classic’ to cover for Turntable Kitchen’s Sounds Delicious vinyl series and selected R.E.M.’s Out of Time (1991) Album. We hope you like our re-imagining of the record and we hope Mike Mills doesn’t sue us (I had a dream he would, twice).
All tracks written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe. Turntable Kitchen has sorted the relevant license. Recorded over 4 days at Second World Studios Rehearsal Space in Fairfield with Matthew Redlich. Mastered for vinyl by John Ruberto.
Quivers are: Sam Nicholson – sings, guitars Bella Quinlan – sings, bass, guitars Holly Thomas – sings, drums Michael Panton – sings, guitars.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – ‘Live in San Francisco ‘16’ limited deluxe double golden gate sunburst and bay fog vinyl LP with rainbow foil wide-spine jacket and packaged in a recycled brown paper bag.
King Gizzard recently made multiple announcements including their first studio album of 2020, Along with the announcement was the new single “Automation” The single release saw the band give full access to fans by providing a bunch of film and audio assets to make your own remix and clip.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard gave fans a preview of their upcoming “Live in San Francisco ’16″ release with a video of “Evil Death Roll”. The live 13-track, double album is set to arrive on November 20th via ATO Records along with a full concert film. Coming in as the band’s second official live release of 2020, behind April’s Chunky Shrapnel, it helps pad the stats on what has been a—comparatively—light year for the Australian-bred psych rockers. This year saw no studio releases from the group that usually puts out multiple a year, with King Gizzard largely exploring their archives with live releases—many of which the band used as fundraising initiatives for various causes.
In this black-and-white clip shot at The Independent, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard come in hot straight out of the gate with the song’s pounding rhythm. With Stu Mackenzie jumping around like a madman from the very start, one wonders how they can keep this up for the whole song—let alone an entire concert.
The answer comes with an instrumental breakdown in the middle of the tune, where the band is able to catch its breath and slow things down a bit. Meanwhile, repeated wah wah pedal-infused phrasings coming from somewhere in the trio of guitars featuring Joey Walker and Cook Craig in addition to Mackenzie. The style shifts around during the instrumental portion, as Walker’s harmonic-led lead brings the drums down and eventually to a full stop. As drummer Michael Cavanagh gently revives the rhythm, it abruptly turns into a fever pitch as the band comes back in at full velocity, and before you know it Stu is holding his guitar up to the mic to create hectic feedback. In short, this performance is raw energy for 7:31 minutes straight.
Just under a month after delivering their award-winning 2016 album Nonagon Infinity, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard took the stage at San Francisco’s The Independent for a set both wildly frenetic and meticulously executed. In one of their final club gigs before bursting onto the international scene—soon selling out amphitheaters and headlining festivals—the Melbourne septet laid down a breakneck performance that, in the words of SF Weekly, “made every organ ache just right.” Newly unearthed by ATO Records, Live in San Francisco ’16 captures an extraordinary moment in the band’s increasingly storied history, a 13-song spectacular likely to leave every listener awestruck and adrenalized.
Multi-tracked and impeccably mixed, Live in San Francisco ’16 simultaneously channels the massive energy of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s set while echoing the sweaty intimacy of the 500-capacity venue. Like Nonagon Infinity—the band’s eighth full-length and worldwide breakthrough—Live in San Francisco ’16 kicks off with “Robot Stop,” an immediately transportive track built on blistering riffs and bombastic rhythms. Reaching its majestic climax with a 22-minute rendition of fan favourite “Head On/Pill” (from 2013’s Float Along – Fill Your Lungs), the album rushes forward with a furious intensity as the band tears through the entire set without ever breaking—a feat that induces a sort of joyful delirium in anyone who bears witness.
With nearly half the setlist made up of Nonagon Infinity tracks, Live in San Francisco ’16 unfolds with the same exquisitely controlled chaos King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard brought to that arguable masterpiece—a nine-song body of work crafted as the world’s first infinitely looping LP (i.e., each track flowing seamlessly into the next, with the album-closing “Road Train” linking straight back into the opener). “2016 was peak tightness for Gizz,” notes frontman Stu Mackenzie. “Around this time we were really into tightly composed sets, and the show was like one long song—everything linked, everything planned. We threw that idea out the window later on, but this live record is a great document of that moment in our collective psyche.”
An unequivocal turning point for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Nonagon Infinity arrived in April 2016 and drew major critical acclaim, with NPR hailing it as “masterfully bizarro” and Pitchfork stating that the album “yields some of the most outrageous, exhilarating rock ‘n’ roll in recent memory.” Not only a critical success, Nonagon Infinity won Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal album at the 2016 ARIA Music Awards, while eternally zeitgeisty director Edgar Wright named it among his favourite records of all time. Two years in the making, the album marked a drastic departure from the folk-and-Tropicalia-tinged psych-pop of its 2015 predecessor Paper Mache Dream Balloon, with the band taking a bold creative leap in its structure. “I wanted to have an album where all these riffs and grooves just kept coming in and out the whole time, so a song wasn’t just a song, it was part of a loop, part of this whole experience where it feels like it doesn’t end and doesn’t need to end,” Mackenzie explained back in 2016. When replicated live, that effect is doubly mesmerizing, as frenzied and transcendent as a glorious fever dream.
The vinyl product will be available in 2 formats; 1) The deluxe double LP on “Golden Gate Sunburst” & “Bay Fog” coloured vinyl with rainbow foil wide-spine jacket, printed on recycled board. Custom inner-sleeves, printed on recycled board. The product will be packaged in recycled brown paper bag in lieu of plastic shrink wrap 2) The standard double LP on recycled, randomly coloured, eco-wax vinyl with wide-spine jacket and custom inner-sleeves printed on recycled board. The product will be packaged in recycled brown paper bag in lieu of plastic shrink wrap
Live In San Francisco 16′ Double Disc. Glow in the dark embossed sleeve. Both out everywhere November 20th
The Perth-based psych/Krautrock group Mt. Mountain are today announcing their fourth full-length, ‘Centre’, and sharing the first single, ‘Aplomb’. Their first release on Fuzz Club, the incoming album is due for release on vinyl, CD and tape on February 26th 2021. Australian five-piece Mt. Mountain are today announcing their fourth album, ‘Centre’, and sharing the first single ‘Aplomb’.
Taking cues from Krautrock pioneers like Neu! and Can whilst existing in a similar world to contemporaries like Moon Duo, Kikagaku Moyo and Minami Deutsch, Mt. Mountain are formidable torchbearers of the minimal-is-maximal tradition. Out today, ‘Aplomb’ was one of the first songs written for the album and marked a conscious shift of focus towards more rhythmic patterns within their music. Stephan Bailey (vocals/organs/flute) reflects on the song: “‘Aplomb’ is essentially the voice that I hear in my head, reminding me to not rush and slow down, and to have the confidence to bring this into practice in everyday life. We wanted there to be this clear contrast here between the tempo of the song and the lyrical content, an approach which appears throughout the album.”
Very excited to announce that we have signed with Fuzz Club Records. Details on the incoming release coming soon! through fuzzclubrecords: “We’re super excited to announce that we’ve signed the great mt.mountain for their incoming third album – the details of which will all be revealed soon!
Hailing from Perth, Australia and forming in mid-2012, Mt. Mountain deal in just about everything we love here at Fuzz Club: a sprawling, motorik psychedelic rock sound that effortlessly journeys between tranquil, drone-like meditations and raucous, full-throttle wig-outs that’ll blow your mind as much as your speakers.
Bailey describes how, thematically, much of ‘Centre’ is a dissection of faith – both spiritual and secular – and his personal, often complicated relation to it: “The album for me, lyrically, is mostly about my experience of religion. It explores these concepts and the rules that were told to me from childhood to adulthood and my thoughts on my own connection to them. Similar themes arise between the tracks whether it be lyrically or structural, both a play on repetition and simplicity.”
‘Aplomb’ is lifted from Mt. Mountain’s incoming fourth album ‘Centre’, due for release February 26th 2021 on Fuzz Club Records. You can pre-order the album on vinyl, CD and tape here:https://fuzzclub.lnk.to/aplomb
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard return with new album “K.G.”, their sixteenth since forming in 2010. In the wake of a global pandemic, it’s a collection of songs composed and recorded remotely after the six members of the band retreated to their own homes scattered around Melbourne,Australia. “K.G.” is a pure distillation of the King Gizzard sound, one that cherry picks the best aspects of previous albums and contorts them into new shapes via defiantly non-western rock scales. Over a ten-year span spent releasing an album every few weeks (or so it seemed) King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard never repeated themselves, always pushing forward and trying new things whether it was lengthy jazz excursions, gloom-and-doom synth prog, or thundering thrash metal.
That changed some on 2020’s K.G., where the band revisit the approach used on Flying Microtonal Banana, the group’s 2017 album built around the avant-garde sounds of their custom-made guitars and altered instruments. Stuck in their various homes during the global pandemic, the band gravitated toward the unique instruments and built a batch of songs using their non-Western tunings and tones. Unlike that album, though, where that almost felt like a (mostly successful) gimmick, this time the guitars are more fully integrated into the songs. “Automation” and “Some of Us” kick and twist like classic King Gizzard-style psychedelic rockers, the acoustic guitars of “Straws in the Winds” have a snarling bite that matches the evil sneer of the vocals and sentiment of the lyrics, “Oddlife’s” guitar solos are pure prog, and “The Hungry Wolf of Fate” revisits the blown-out metal attack of their most recent studio LP with a nice mix of restraint and explosive power.
Even though much of the record transverses familiar sonic territory, the band still find some room for surprises. The acid house synths percolating behind the wall of guitars on “Minimum Brain Size” are a nice touch; the group work up a sweaty groove on “Ontolgy” and in the process sound something like Talking Heads butting heads with Kid Creole & the Coconuts; and in the album’s only real shocker, they drop some bubbly Madchester grooves on “Intrasport.” The sound is so slinky and giddily elastic, it makes one wonder what a full album of King Gizzard songs made for dancing would be like. Judging from this, and the band’s track record, probably pretty great. Apart from this one song, King Gizzard don’t break much new ground on K.G., and while that in itself might be something of a let down, the result is still quite pleasing. Listening to them tread a little bit of water is still better than listening to the fresh ideas of 99.9 percent of other groups, especially when it’s done with the energy and passion the band exhibit here.
Creating an immersive world in which to transport the listener to another plain, the songs meld into each other through percussive transitions that lead you through their world. Whether it is the stripped back Straws In The Wind, the jutting Ontology, or the pop-infused Intrasport, the band are firing on all cylinders to create a truly special album. Innovation, as ever, is the order of the day and, while the band are relying on the one concept of instrumentation, the variety of rhythms and grooves that they produce is dizzying.
They blend the mellower tracks with those that stomp and growl, songs that implore you to close your eyes and drift on their beauty with those that wrap you in swirling menace. Closing song, The Hungry Wolf Of Fate, distils all that down into one five-minute summary.
Sixteen albums in and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard show no sign of slowing their sonic experimentation and, with this album, again show that they have many avenues to choose from.
Indie-folk artist Harper Bloom has dropped a sweet new song titled ‘Sunflower Girl’, and announced her final live show for the year. The Melbourne-via-Perth songwriter wrote her new single during the winter months in Brooklyn, New York, performing the song live for the first time during her busking days on the streets of Manhattan.
According to Bloom, ‘Sunflower Girl’ reflected the continued experiences she shared with her partner in a unique perspective.“I wanted ‘Sunflower Girl’ to reflect how we felt about life, detailing how the purest joy comes from simply being in each other’s company and enjoying unique experiences, rather than the pursuit of materialistic gains,” Bloom said in a press statement.
The song marks the fourth single from Bloom, who released her debut single ‘Mary’ back in April. On that track, the 25-year-old collaborated with producer Benjamin McCarthy (G Flip, Thelma Plum, Megan Washington). Bloom followed that up with ‘Walk My Way’ and ‘You’re The Music’. All four singles have been lifted from Bloom’s forthcoming EP, entitled ‘Faith, Sex And Skin’. A release date for that project has not yet been announced.
The Perth-bred, Melbourne-based indie-folk songsmith Harper Bloom has released her latest sun-soaked single, ‘Sunflower Girl’, a bright and blissful track composed in a cosy Brooklyn apartment in the middle of a frosty winter. A song glowing with the same warmth and charm of earlier releases that fast captured the hearts of new fans across Australia and put her on an industry must-watch-list, ‘Sunflower Girl’ marks as the fourth single from the ascending singer-songwriter and closes a stellar year for the BIGSOUND 50 Artist, who not only landed a new management deal with Teamtrick (Allday, Mallrat) and booking agency deal with New World Artists earlier this year, but has also risen as one Australia’s most exciting new talents in the indie-folk landscape.“Bloom’s indie-folk-pop approach to music, paired with her immersive lyricism, easily make her one artist to watch in the future” – Rolling Stone
The Perth-based psych/Krautrock group Mt. Mountain are today announcing their fourth full-length, ‘Centre’, and sharing the first single, ‘Aplomb’. Their first release on Fuzz Club, the incoming album is due for release on vinyl, CD and tape on February 26th 2021. Australian five-piece Mt. Mountain are today announcing their fourth album, ‘Centre’, and sharing the first single ‘Aplomb’.
Taking cues from Krautrock pioneers like Neu! and Can whilst existing in a similar world to contemporaries like Moon Duo, Kikagaku Moyo and Minami Deutsch, Mt. Mountain are formidable torchbearers of the minimal-is-maximal tradition. Out today, ‘Aplomb’ was one of the first songs written for the album and marked a conscious shift of focus towards more rhythmic patterns within their music. Stephan Bailey (vocals/organs/flute) reflects on the song: “‘Aplomb’ is essentially the voice that I hear in my head, reminding me to not rush and slow down, and to have the confidence to bring this into practice in everyday life. We wanted there to be this clear contrast here between the tempo of the song and the lyrical content, an approach which appears throughout the album.”
The Fat Angel Sings 