Album Review :: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

September 25th 2013

gizzard

Subtlety isn’t a word familiar to Melbourne psych-rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

There’s their rhyming mouthful of a name, the seven strong lineup, the four albums in three years, and now the big new album, Float On – Fill Your Lungs. Not to mention its 16 minute opening track filled with enough musical ideas to fill out an entire record…

When you get into the meat of the record, you repeatedly ask yourself if it’s the same band as the previous track. Float On – Fill Your Lungs sees the band adding sitar and synths with their already powerful sound, blending all the cultures you’ve always envied. It’s outlaw biker meets traditional Indian; beach bum meets astronaut.

FBi’s music director Stephen Goodhew describes it as:

“an album so good at delivering the psych vibes it practically borders on contraband.”

‘I’m Not A Man Unless I Have A Woman’ blends the dreaminess of psych, the grunt of Aussie rock and tranquil sitar riffs in just the right way, it might even have you motorboating bikie chicks. Well, it worked for these guys:

Remember that time back in the ’70s when King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard did that festival full of bikies in backcountry USA? Well, it looks that happened. WARNING: Nudity and Sex.

Earlier this year, King Gizzard dropped Eyes Like the Sky, a “spaghetti western” audiobook narrated by Broderick Smith of The Dingoes and impressively scored by the band. While I was craving some more of this, the new album is a purely musical record.

And musically, it delivers what everybody who has been keeping tabs on the band has been waiting for. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard can now join the animal-inspired kingdom of fellow psych bands, Deerhunter and Tame Impala. It’s not all psych freak-out though, with intimate pop numbers ‘Let Me Mend The Past’ and ‘God Is Calling Me Back Home’ showing these seven dudes can also share some emotion.

Scour your sources to get a hold of this one, because it’s as close to psychedelia as you can get without… well, you know what.

Float Along – Fill Your Lungs is out Friday 27th September.

FBi’s album of the week: 20.9.13 – 20.9.13

—————

WHAT :: Float Along – Fill Your Lungs Album Tour

WHO :: King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard

WHERE :: The Standard, Sydney

WHEN :: Saturday 2nd November

HOW MUCH :: $23 – tix here

 READ :: Previous Album of the Week Reviews

Contributor

Read more from FBi Radio