King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: How a band released five albums in one year
Since Australian rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard formed in 2010, they have released a staggering 23 studio albums alongside 14 live records, several compilations, bootlegs, and remixes. The band, who have experimented across as many genres as you can think of, from folk to heavy metal, are known as one of contemporary music’s most prolific working outfits.
Somehow, the members have balanced writing and recording a constant flow of new music with touring, side projects, running their own festival, and record label. To those unfamiliar with the band, one might assume there is no way one group can consistently release high-quality and innovative records at such a fast pace. However, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are highly-skilled and creative musicians who have never been afraid to experiment with weird and wacky ideas. Thus, in 2017, when they decided to release five albums in a calendar year, their explorations of microtonal tuning, spoken word conceptual hard rock, and improvisational psychedelic jazz resulted in some of their most remarkable albums to date.
After recording their acclaimed, endlessly looping 2016 album Nonagon Infinity, King Gizzard was ready to take some time off. Lead singer Stu Mackenzie shared: “We were rehearsing the songs a lot because we wanted them to be so tight that we could go in and nail them in one take. The whole process was a bit of a head fuck, so by the time it was done, we were ready for a break.” However, once the band got back in the studio, the seven members were bursting with different ideas that had been suppressed whilst working so tightly on Nonagon Infinity.
“We were messing around with all kinds of different stuff; fast, heavy stuff that felt really linked to Nonagon, and then chilled-out, jazzy ideas that just seemed like they were from a totally different universe to that,” he added. “Eventually, it felt like we had these four different ideas to build four distinct albums around, and then somehow, that ended up becoming five.” Never one to shy away from a challenge, the band decided to bring all of their ideas to life, “I think I got a little bit over-excited, but the challenge was something that felt really invigorating.”
The band’s first release of 2017, Flying Microtonal Banana, remains one of their most impressive thus far. Inspired by traditional Turkish music, King Gizzard modified their instruments to play in microtonal tuning and incorporated traditional instruments such as a zurna. Mackenzie used a custom-built yellow guitar, from which “the ideas for the record escaped.” Some of the band’s most recognisable and well-loved tracks emerged from Flying Microtonal Banana, such as the infectiously repetitive ‘Rattlesnake’, ‘Sleep Drifter’ and ‘Nuclear Fusion’.
Four months later and King Gizzard were back with Murder of the Universe, a concept album split into three chapters. Narration flits between Leah Senior and a text-to-speech voice, who plays the role of Han-Tyumi, a cyborg who gains consciousness and eventually destroys the universe. Pummelling riffs and rhythms, compelling basslines and ethereal flutes soundtrack the epic sci-fi journey. Sonically, the album is closest to Nonagon Infinity, although it is far from derivative. The unique spoken-word element drives the band to new heights, expanding on their 2013 “cult western audio book” album Eyes Like The Sky. Since its release, the marvellously chaotic yet cohesive Murder of the Universe has become a firm fan favourite and an indicator of the band’s ability to master concepts that could otherwise fall flat.
Next was Sketches of Brunswick East, an easy-listening psychedelic jazz record made in collaboration with Mild High Club. After Mackenzie and Alex Brettin shared voice notes of rough ideas (or ‘sketches’), they came together to record the finished result in just three weeks. Quite possibly the weakest of the five albums released in 2017, Sketches is still an impressive effort, blending psychedelic pop, soft rock and jazz fusion to create a relaxed, summery sound. “We had maybe ten or twelve weird ideas that were usually just a chord progression with a melody over the top, and we just bounced them back and forth,” Mackenzie shared.
With their fourth release of the year, Mackenzie was “starting to feel guilty about trying to get people to buy so much stuff all the time.” To combat this, the band released Polygondwanaland under an open-source license. Returning to a heavier sound, the album is another one of the band’s best releases. Opening with a ten-minute masterwork, ‘Crumbling Castle’, each track flows effortlessly into each other with a dark undercurrent that feels utterly immersive. Mixing prog, sludgy stoner metal, psychedelia and delicious synths, Polygondwanaland is a feat propelled by the string of successful and genre-spanning albums released in the preceding months.
Finally, King Gizzard released their fifth album of the year on 31st December 2017. Gumboot Soup is a compilation of tracks that didn’t make it onto the previous four albums, although it is more than just a collection of half-baked cuts. Mackenzie stated that the songs are “definitely not B-sides or anything. They’re more songs that didn’t work in any of the rest of the four records, or they didn’t fit into any of those categories that well, or they came together slightly after when those records came together.” Tracks such as ‘The Great Chain of Being’, ‘Muddy Water’, ‘Beginner’s Luck’ and ‘All is Known’ are all standouts, proving the strength of King Gizzard’s musicianship – able to deliver slices of metal, pop-tinged cautionary tales, and mesmeric masterpieces in one solid LP.
By allowing themselves the freedom to separate their melting pot of ideas into five different releases, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard created some of their most significant works in 2017. Dedicating themselves to pushing the limits of their instruments (going as far as to create new ones), the band brought the ideas they’d bottled up over the previous year to life.
