Zach Geyer
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Work Their Magic Again
(Photo by Jason Galea)
After hearing a pop song about brain parasites, synths about evil botanical goblins, and a 10 minute jam about a 1920s polio treatment, I knew I’d found one of my favorite bands. The infamous Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. I was enthralled by their massive discography. From the constant excitement and action they depict in their endless apocalyptic album Nonagon Infinity to the slow and methodical story of their spoken work spaghetti western album Eyes Like the Sky. I also happened to find them in the perfect year. In 2022 they released 5 albums.
The first album of note they released was their april 2022 album Omnium Gatherum. It was a collection of old and unused songs from the last several years of album releases with a few extra new songs. The album opened with the introduction to the overall theme of their new material –Jam music. After years of being separated because of the pandemic all they wanted to do was just play a lot of music in the studio together.
Omnium Gatherum Opened with the massive 18 minute long song “The Dripping Tap”. This song contains a multitude of different sections which add up to the 18 minute long behemoth. Some of these parts are enthralling and fascinating while others were at times repetitive and boring. A peak for me was the ending when every part that we have been introduced to comes crashing together creating an amazing mix of different genres and elements making all 18 minutes feel worth it. At moments the song began to drag and feel like a slog. Some of the guitar solos barely iterate on their musical ideas which makes the otherwise intense and fast paced solos feel boring and repetitive.
The Dripping Tap reflects my opinions on Omnion Gatherum as a whole. Some parts are some of the best things King Gizzard has done. Such as Magenta Mountain which is a synth song that made me feel like I was being transported to another world; or The Grim Reaper which I found fascinating and dynamic due to its mix of Beastie Boys inspired rap mixed with flute solos.
At other times some of the songs felt repetitive and boring even though they did contain interesting ideas. Such as Blame It On The Weather or The Funeral which although having a few interesting ideas both are very repetitive and cannot hold my attention for a full listen. Just like The Dripping Tap, Omnium Gatherum has parts that are a little boring, yet as a whole, I very much enjoyed the album and would absolutely recommend it.
After this they released 3 albums in October. The first being Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava which is the peak of their interest in jam music. Each song is a 10 minute cut down version of a 4 hour long jam they did. With individual songs being based around a different musical mode (the first letter of each word in the title represents a different mode: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian etc.). This album will send the listener on a sonic journey. The use of different modes gives all of the songs a completely different feel. The amount of iteration they do over every musical idea in every song makes the album always feel developed and interesting. These concepts all come together in what I consider to be the two peaks of this album which are Ice V and Iron Lung.
Ice V is a song about regal ice monsters which uses lots of funky wah solos and flute licks. It has a very interesting combination of dissonant chord progressions under happy melodies. This created a lighthearted yet emotionally confusing song which paired with the music video of their rhythm guitarist dancing around a greek isle for ten minutes created a song I will be returning to many times.
Then there is Iron Lung which starts with a calm and slow piano intro before turning into long rock guitar solos all while singing about the 1920s polio treatment of the same name. This resulted in a song that is one of the most unique lyrical ideas I’ve heard this year while still being as consistently good as any other song on this album. This album managed to hold my attention for its hour-long run time by having unique and interesting songs with thoroughly explored ideas.
Only 5 days later the band released their next album Laminated Denim. The album is a follow up to the album they also released in 2022 Made In Timeland which is filler for their breaks during live shows. This album consists of two fifteen minute long tracks both of which are based around the rhythm of a clock. The album uses many musical parts which all flow around the main clock tick in a way that is very satisfying and fun to listen to. Laminated Denim was also initially meant to serve the same purpose as Made In Timeland however the second track Hypertension has made its way into many live sets. I saw the track’s live debut which was a great experience. The parts flowed together live just as well as they did the studio which created a great live show. The album slowly builds up energy over its 30 minute runtime before ending with its final chorus which uses its lyrics to mix the ideas from Laminated Denim and Made In Timeland. I thoroughly enjoyed this album and it has been my favorite album to listen to while working for the last several months.
The final album coming a few weeks later was Changes. This album has been in the works since 2017 but it has only come together recently. The entire album is based on a chord progression that switches between 2 keys with every chord. Every song in the album is meant to be based on a different idea that spawned from that chord progression. In addition, as opposed to the last several albums which were guitar driven Changes is mostly keyboard driven.
One might expect that this would make the album turn out to be repetitive and uninteresting but the opposite is true. The band manages to cover a multitude of different styles and keep the album varied. The album kicks off with the 13 minute long piano driven jam Change. This song puts its long runtime to use by slowly building up from a slow and calm beginning to a faster and slightly more intense ending. Change also introduces a series of motifs that will be used throughout the remainder of the album.
Similarly to some of the band’s other albums, many of the songs on the album have interesting lyrical topics which work well with the music itself. Gondii is a fast-paced synth song about a strange brain parasite which I learned a surprising amount from. Astroturf is another synth song that features flute parts mixed in with funky bass lines with lyrics about the environment. These songs both show a series of different musical ideas while still having all the songs feel similar because of the chord progression.
The ending of the album is somewhat of a letdown. The final song Short Change is just a series of synth licks in the style of the intro. After the constantly-shifting, interesting collection of songs that I was previously listening to, the boring ending is just somewhat of a disappointment. I think that may be the point– which I discovered after being told the definition of the term “short change.” Overall despite some boring songs, the majority of the songs on the albums were thoroughly enjoyable.
King Gizzard and the Lizzard Wizard had one of their best years yet. Managing to release their first double album and then later releasing three albums in one month, all while touring consistently. Somehow despite the occasional boring song they somehow managed to make these some of their most unique and interesting albums yet while still keeping up the quality expected of them. I thoroughly enjoyed this year’s albums and am excited to see what they do next.