Australian experimentalists King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard was arguably 2017’s most prolific band, releasing five full albums over the course of the year. There was the mind-melt Flying Microtonal Banana; the cyborg-narrated sci-fi trip Murder of the Universe; the yacht-rock/Brit-folk/jazz-fusion collab with Mild High Club, Sketches of Brunswick East; the psych-prog beast let loose for free use, Polygondwanaland; and now the groovy finale, Gumboot Soup, released just under the wire on December 31.
Even more impressive is the vast array of killer songs tucked among this quintet of curiosities. One of our favorites is Polygondwanaland’s final track, “The Fourth Colour,” a meandering yet propulsive groove built on dizzying, circular riffs, feverish drum fills, and a trippy vocal technique called hocketing, in which multiple vocalists sing alternating syllables.
“The Fourth Colour” itself refers to the phenomenon of tetrachromacy. The rare tetrachromat possesses four (instead of three) types of cone cells in the eye, meaning they have the ability to see millions of more colors than the average human. It’s perhaps the essence of psychedelia as we visually interpret it. For the band, it’s a gateway to divinity: “Third eye is free/I am not body/Tetrachromacy,” they chant, before their final words reveal all: “Now I am a god.” At this revelation, the instruments dissolve into a deep-space drone before resurfacing for one final bout of psych-rock delirium.
They’re one of the only bands releasing new music (almost five albums to be exact this year, including Polygondwanaland, with several tracks released in the last several months). “Sketches of BrunswickEast” has already made most Top 50 best albums lists of 2017. We could be done here, but we’re not.
After singles “All Is Known,” “Beginner’s Luck” and “Greenhouse Heat Death,” the band have released “The Last Oasis.” Since we only remember things in short spurts here on the internet, “All Is Known” is every guitar riff ever used in rock ‘n’ roll, “Beginner’s Luck” is a smooth, cheeky gambling crooner, “Greenhouse Heat Death” is psych-meets-goth death inside of a greenhouse (this is literally what the song is about) and “The Last Oasis” is low-key and lovely, even upbeat at times, proving that you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink the optical illusion.
Near the end of last year, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard promised they’d release five albums by the end of 2017. As we creep closer to the end of this year, the Aussie psych outfit have thus far shared three: Flying Microtonal Banana, Murder of the Universe, and Sketches of Brunswick East (with Mild High Club). They’ll bring the tally up to four this week with the release of their latest full-length effort, Polygondwanaland.
Lead single ‘CrumblingCastle‘ opens the immersively brilliant POLYGONDWANALAND. It’s a mystical, slow-building psych-blues epic. The song sets a fine precedent for an album that listens like a cleverly constructed amalgamation other King Gizzard releases. The 60’s pop relaxation of 2015’s Paper Mache Dream Balloon, the jazzy time signatures of 2017’s Sketches of Brunswick East, the trackless rhythmic relentlessness of 2016’s NonagonInfinity, the microtonal, ancient conjurings of (also) 2017’s Flying Microtonal Banana, and the lyrical stories and themes so strongly present in (also, also) 2017’s Murder of the Universe. These guys have so richly explored and stretched the boundaries of their own musical and thematic universe that it’s nearly impossible for all their new stuff not to be entirely self-referential. King Gizzard can only sound like King Gizzard, and that’s a really, really awesome thing.
The album’s eponymous second track cruises upliftingly along on the burbling surface that is Gizz’s ever-deepening rivers of intertwining concept-driven song themes and stories. It opens in to the mouth of a swirling ocean, pulsing synth and clever guitar picking that spreads itself across the expansive and catchy ‘The Castle in The Air‘ and ‘Deserted Dunes Welcome Weary Feet‘. These back-to-back tracks will swallow you up in them. Gizzard front man Stu Mackenzie delivers slightly tense, staccato vocals over a somber bass and synth combination.
A hugely 80’s synth warble that’d be at home in the middle of the Stranger Things intro opens ‘Loyalty‘ and ‘Horology‘; a back-to-back psych trip that skips along with whimsical aplomb. Mackenzie unleashes the exceptionally capable flautist within him, making sure Gizz’s trademark of deft musical ability.
Lucas Skinner’s trademark bass wanderings really come to the jazzy surface, then guitarist Joey does some more Mongolian throat singing, then there’s what I believe is a sitar for a bit, and then ‘Tetrachromacy‘ seamlessly begins, Eric and Michael begin to really warm up on the drums, and we change gears once more… goodness gracious. Always on the hunt for new horizons both thematically and musically, Gizz employ that desire and curiosity here more so than any other track on POLYGONDWANALAND. We get our first – and very minimal – taste of Ambrose Smith’s mouth organ skills, dashes of cross-album hook repetition and recycling, more glass/ tubular bells, a lyrical querying of undiscovered colours near blue, flute throughout, and some seriously swift rolls and fills from the beguilingly synchronized actions of dual-percussionists Michael Cavanagh and Eric Moore (who also runs Flightless Records while seamlessly doing tandem drumming across some seriously complicated musical structures .
The album expansively closes with the hypnotic and polysyllabic wanderings of ‘Searching‘; heavily 60’s stoner psych journey in to introspection, and finally ‘The Fourth Colour‘; a staggeringly large and complicated song that both drifts and turns corners. It’s a rollicking album closer. Just put POLYGONDWANALANDon repeat and keep discovering.
If King Gizzard and the Lizard didn’t release another LP for a decade, their musical output within this year alone would still eclipse most (if not all) multi-millionaire, studio-backed, advertising-funded, marketing-think-tanked pop-star’s album releases by a wide margin. And they did it in their own houses, with their own equipment, under their own record label, while touring the world to sold out shows, running their own music festival, making half a dozen film clips, and personally sending you the merch and records from each release to save on overheads.
Tracklist:
0:00 – Crumbling Castle 10:44 – Polygondwanaland 14:16 – The Castle In The Air 17:04 – Deserted Dunes Welcome Weary Feet 20:38 – Inner Cell 24:35 – Loyalty 28:13 – Horology 31:06 – Tetrachromacy 34:36 – Searching… 37:40 – The Fourth Colour
King Gizzard have announced plans to release their fourth studio album Polygondwanaland, and it will be free to download later this week.
“This album is Free,” wrote the band announced. “Free as in, free. Free to download and if you wish, free to make copies. Make tapes, make CD’s, make records.” “If u wanna make cassettes I don’t really know what you would do,” say the band. “Be creative. We did it once but it sounded really shit. Maybe try the WAVs idano. Ever wanted to start your own record label? GO for it! Employ your mates, press wax, pack boxes.”
Along with the new record and studio advice, the band have shared new song ‘Crumbling Castle’:
Those prolific Aussie psych-rockers King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have shared a new ten-minute track ‘Crumbling Castle‘.
Having already released three albums in this year, the newest track looks set to be appearing on upcoming album which is rumoured to be titled Polygondwanaland.
At the start of the year the band made a promise to put out five new albums inside the calendar and, after Flying Microtonal Banana, Murder of the Universe, and Sketches of Brunswick East it looks like they’re on track. The new song – all ten minutes of it – is accompanied by a video directed by artist Jason Galea .
The Fat Angel Sings 