“K.G.”: The Album King Gizzard’s Fans Will Think is Sick But Won’t Change Any Haters’ Minds. It’s Still Good Though.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is a tongue-twister. It also sounds like the name of a psychic who photographs your aura with one of those aura reading machines while his pet lizard watches from a cage. I don’t know, just an idea. Given how trippy that situation sounds though, it’s probably pretty fitting, because the real life King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (who I will from now on be referring to as King Gizz--even though I don’t know them like that), the Melbourne-based psych-rock band who have released SIXTEEN albums in the past eight years, are BACK BABY, with their latest installment “K.G.”, which truly lives up to all psychedelic expectations. Released on Nov. 20 on the band’s own label, Flightless Records, the LP is billed as the sonic sequel to their ninth studio album, 2017’s “Flying Microtonal Banana” (also known as “Explorations into Microtonal Tuning, vol. 1”).

“K.G.”, advertised as “Explorations into Microtonal Tuning, vol. 2”, is an interesting release-- a record that feels entirely like a comfort album, if prog rock and long noise solos are what make you comfortable. It seems like a cheerful constant given that 2020 was the worst year for music in recent memory. Although the album supposedly delves into the concept of microtonal tuning, which is the use of microtones, intervals smaller than semitones and for which the band played custom microtonal guitars able to accommodate 24-TET tuning (also known as a quarter tone/the quarter tone scale), I’m not sure if that’s what interests me about the album as a whole. It seems like a remarkably cohesive piece of work given that was recorded and released almost entirely in quarantine. But that doesn’t mean that it’s easy all the way through. 

If I’m honest, although “K.G.” is the supposed sequel to “Flying Microtonal Banana”, I can’t really tell the difference. Or between this record and their twelfth record, “Polygondwanaland”, also from 2017, or really any of King Gizzard’s 2017 albums for that matter. The album’s ten tracks float easily by, but I wasn’t left wondering “what the fuck did I just listen to?” either positively or negatively. The album was supported by a slew of singles, five specifically, which, considering that the record is only ten songs long and was only formally announced on Oct. 21, a month before it was set to be released, makes me wonder whether or not the album was really intentional at all. I think the LP makes a great entry point for someone who’s never listened to King Gizz’s music and wants to assess their ~vibe~, but it’s not where the gems are. It’s an album that fans will love, but I don’t think it’s winning over any skeptics, and that’s okay. 

Because if you’re in the particular mood for “K.G.”, the kind of mood where you want to close the door and scream before dancing to music that’s REALLY fucking loud, I think this might be for you. “Automation”, “Honey”, and, my favorite track, “Intrasport”, are the album’s heavy hitters, and they make up a surprising amount of ground. They’re three purely psychedelic songs that are at once danceable and also mystifying; they clearly bear the mark of influence from their 1960s predecessors but equally show King Gizz to be true innovators successfully developing their own unique brand of experimental, concept-album driven psychedelia. 

As has become a mainstay of King Gizz’s music, about half the songs on “K.G.” make sense and half, uh, do not. While some of these experimental tracks are executed successfully, like “Minimum Brain Size”, “Ontology”, and “The Hungry Wolf of Fate”, which sounds like the kind of song I’d enjoy listening to on my way to a fight, a few are certainly skippable. However, a criticism that can never be leveled at the band is that they’re boring, formula driven or trend led. King Gizz does their own thing, always, and they’re true creatives in the kind of way that seems increasingly rare within the contemporary music landscape. Listening to them is not only exciting because their music is amazing, but likewise because listening to their catalogue feels like being let into a private meeting with a master scientist. Seeing what they produce allows listeners an insight into the thoughts behind their musical process, and that’s what’s most exciting. 

What I was left considering after listening to this album top-to-bottom was where it lies within the larger sonic landscape of the “Gizzverse,” the band’s name for the theory that all of their albums are connected to each other in some way. I know it sounds weird, but there are whole fansites and reddit threads dedicated to this thing, so someone must be buying into it. These crossovers include musical ideas and themes, but also extend to whole characters, like Han-Tyumi, and his invention, The Soy-Protein Munt Machine. It’s crazy, man. According to Cosmic Magazine, Han is “the last amongst mankind to be born human before joining the rest of his race in becoming a fully digital being,” who builds the Munt Machine, which is “a sentient apparatus embodying what Han believes to be the two defining characteristics of humanity: death and vomiting.” Like, what? Are you still following, because I don’t even know what’s going on and I’ve been researching this for forty-five minutes. I don’t think there are any vomiting machines or last-man-on-earth apocalypse situations on this album, but maybe I just need to listen to it another time. Or look through reddit theories. And to be honest, I’d happily do either. Regardless, it’s nice to feel part of something bigger, and with each successive album, King Gizz continues to expand the map of their own psychedelic paradise. And after listening to “K.G.”, I think it’s a pretty sweet place to be. 

You can follow the band on Instagram and Twitter .

Listen to “K.G.” here

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s video for ‘Honey’

More on the supposed Gizzverse here.