Inside King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard’s latest psychedelic journey: ‘Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava’
Like many artists, Australia’s beloved psychonauts, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, remained creative as ever during the blight of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sadly, the restrictions meant no live shows and limited studio availability. Consequently, a creative spring was loaded by the closing days of lockdown, and King Gizzard could finally unleash ideas with seismic profusion.
Before the six-piece had even announced the release of April’s Omnium Gatherum, they had already begun laying the tracks for their 21st, Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava. As with Omnium Gatherum and its 18-minute centrepiece, ‘The Dripping Tap’, the band formed ideas through improvisational jam sessions guided by select themes.
“All we had prepared as we walked into the studio were these seven song titles,” says frontman Stu Mackenzie. “I have a list on my phone of hundreds of possible song titles. I’ll never use most of them, but they’re words and phrases I feel could be digested into King Gizzard-world.”
The title’s initials, IDPLMAL, offer a handy new mnemonic for memorising the seven modes of the major scale. “I’m not sure if many people will notice that,” says Mackenzie, “But any musical dorks will get it”. Apart from this connection, the words are connected as physical objects of nature and set the president for the album’s seven progressive and fascinating compositions.
With the album’s shortest song, ‘Lava’, clocking up just over six-and-a-half minutes and with an average track time north of nine minutes, Gizzard are raising a firm middle finger to the mainstream radio, something I admire deeply. This isn’t, of course, to say that these Aussies have ever been a band to conform to any vested expectation.
So, as we crack open this fresh tin of paint, what do we see? If you’re thinking, perhaps I’ve lost my marbles, consumed a psychedelic drug, or even put my nose too close to some particularly volatile paint, you likely haven’t listened to the album yet. Indeed, this collection of tracks will have you visualising the sounds as you escape into a world of organic creation only a band like King Gizzard could muster up.
A mixture of seven colours greets us in a loose concept collective which aims to sonically represent the subjects laid out in the titles. Beginning with the floating tropical jazz of ‘Mycelium’, the psychedelic notion is played out in the setting of a jazz bar on a carefree Hawaiian beach, piña colada in hand.
The band step up the tempo with ‘Ice V’. The song comes with a more present bassline and rapped verses with an edginess reminiscent of a jagged iceberg. With funky jazz excursions and laid-back guitar solos lain like a cherry on top, this track is the epitome of “cool”.
The next three tracks represent the album’s warmth. As we venture ‘Magma’ and its volcanic twin, ‘Lava’, we’re greeted with the album’s epicentre and very possibly its pinnacle in the latter. This is incredibly fitting, given that scientists rename magma as lava once it’s successfully breached the Earth’s surface. ‘Lava’ is certainly the album’s most beautiful track with its saccharine introduction and transition to a celestial piano-driven vocal section that builds intensity towards the conclusion.
Following the album’s 13-and-a-half-minute epic, ‘Hell’s Itch’, we enter another personal highlight, ‘Iron Lung’. Perhaps the album’s funkiest number, a shimmering, effect-laden guitar, gathers more hooks than a Peter Pan convention as the busy arrangement flows in-between grounding vocal breaks.
The album is brought to a close with ‘Gliese 710’, which beckons a darker turn of events. The ominous, deadly song takes its name from the (relatively) local star that scientists predict could spell disaster and demise for our solar system. But fear not; this won’t affect you unless you plan on reaching your 1.29 millionth birthday.
This album appears to channel the experimental funkiness of George Clinton’s Funkadelic in a new, jazzier direction of 21st-century optimism. Optimism in this day and age is rare, but even rarer is a band willing to push as many sonic boundaries as King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard. Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava is a mouthful, but with progressive, cinematic psychedelia and transportive excursions, it rewards the listener handsomely – a deep breath of fresh air.
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