King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard -

[Higgs]

I’m Your Mind Fuzz (2014)

For their fifth album in 3 years, KGLW seem to put it all together in a driving rock album that’s largely still pinned in the swirl of psychedelic sounds. When I hear this kind of intense layering of sounds, it often seems like weaving a basket or a piece of clothing, taking all these different threads and tightly winding them together to create a greater cohesive whole. Great albums, like this one, do it in spades. The opening suite of songs here (I’m In Your Mind, I’m Not In Your Mind, Cellophane, and I’m Your Mind Fuzz) are completely woven together such that you can’t tell where one ends and the next begins despite having distinct identities as songs. Empty and Hot Water change things up enough to distinguish themselves but maintain that high level of energy and quality. And then, like a blast of cold air walking out from a warm room, Am I in Heaven? clobbers your senses and takes the mantle on this album. This one slowly comes to a close with 3 mellower but no less great tracks, Her and I a great finish to what seems in the moment like an other worldly album. Damn this was great.

Do you partake of the gunga, liebzz?

[liebzz]

No but I didn’t have my coffee yet, so same effect.

[Higgs]

Just wondering. These KGWL write ups in particular just have a great energy.

Not that you need the weed for energy, just saying is all.

I hapoen to be blitzed to fuck and am just loving being along for the ride is all. Peace.

[liebzz]

Just wondering. These KGWL write ups in particular just have a great energy.

Not that you need the weed for energy, just saying is all.

I hapoen to be blitzed to fuck and am just loving being along for the ride is all. Peace.

No qualms with that. I fear the impact this would have on me stoned. Last time that happened, I was watching My Morning Jacket live and felt like I was the maxell tape guy sitting on the couch in front of a speaker with hair blowing back.

[Higgs]

Just wondering. These KGWL write ups in particular just have a great energy.

Not that you need the weed for energy, just saying is all.

I hapoen to be blitzed to fuck and am just loving being along for the ride is all. Peace.

No qualms with that. I fear the impact this would have on me stoned. Last time that happened, I was watching My Morning Jacket live and felt like I was the maxell tape guy sitting on the couch in front of a speaker with hair blowing back.

That sounds awesome.

[liebzz]

Quarters! (2015)

Another quick turn here, as this album focuses on four distinct rhythms extended to 10:10 each, with a sort of psychedelic pop feel combined with jazz fusion. The top highlight has to be God Is in the Rhythm, which magically holds you for the full track on a sort of infectious repeated pattern. Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer is also a highlight here, along with the instrumental passages in The River. Another very solid album that departs from its predecessors. Really unprecedented creativity.

[liebzz]

Paper Mache Dream Balloon (2015)

With a front cover that appears at least reminiscent of the Magical Mystery Tour, KGLW take their brand of psychedelia to its next destination, semi-acoustic psychedelic pop with wind instruments previously laying in the background coming forth to the front of the show. Truth be told, there is a Beatles-esque quality to these songs, at least those of the last few years of the Beatles recording career. Washed in large soundscapes, and occasionally silly (Trap Door), KGLW are on their game here as much as anywhere else. If Sense, Bone, and Dirt announce the sonic arrival, Cold Cadaver, The Bitter Boogie, and Time = Fate perfect it. The title track also serves as a big highlight, with N.G.R.I, and Most of What I Like. Yet another excellent album here very different from what came before.

[i got bugs]

I'm in the middle of composing a list of all my fav songs from these guys n these write ups will help

[liebzz]

Nonagon Infinity (2016)

Perhaps in response to the comparatively dream pop of the last album, and the instrumentally focused Quarters!, Nonagon Infinity charts yet another course. This driving rock record, which wouldn’t be out of place in the early Queens of the Stone Age discography (that’s a compliment), has melded each of these songs together in a single loop, giving the feel that this was all done in one continuous take. Looking back on the track list, the level of play here is so high that each song easily could be pulled out as a highlight. This one is pretty phenomenal as well. Just a great run of albums for quite a while now.

[liebzz]

Flying Microtonal Banana (2017)

I tried the read up on this microtonal thing, and frankly it was a bit over my head, BUT, this album is still enjoyable even to my uneducated ears. Rattlesnake, Melting, Sleep Drifter, Doom City, Nuclear Fusion, and Flying Microtonal Banana were all enjoyable, though my favorite has to be Open Water. Good psychedelic fun.

[liebzz]

Murder of the Universe (2017)

I really need some more time with this one, but on first glance, the combination of the heavier Nonagon Infinity sound with some of what seemed like the cadence of Flying Microtonal Bananas, and the narration resulted in this album sounding like someone’s worst Halloween nightmares come true. The first part, Altered Beast, really has a Black Sabbath feel to it almost, along with The Lord of Lightning. There are even callbacks to Nonagon Infinity here, so I can’t be too far off. I wish I had more time to chew on the narration, but I guess in due time in successive Octobers. I almost expected the album to end with that maniacal laughter that closes out Thriller.

[liebzz]

Sketches of Brunswick East (2017)

For their third album of 2017, they collaborate with Mild High Club to create a largely jazz album, fully changing course from what bordered in heavy metal on Murder of the Universe. This one feels particularly orderly in comparison, even if it wouldn’t have had I not just heard the last album. What’s astonishing is that they are just as well suited to this sound, if not even more so, than the loud rock music that had been prevalent even the last few albums.

[liebzz]

Polygondwanaland (2017)

The fourth KGLW album of 2017 seems like an amalgamation of the rest of the year, and perhaps it is the best of the bunch. Opening with the epic Crumbling Castle and closing with the Fourth Colour, the two end posts are my favorite moments from this one, but I frankly loved all of it, even though to this point this one might have the largest sonic footprint of any of their albums, and really a moment where it almost felt like a Pink Floyd album that would have been created if they never aged and recorded to present day. Deserted Dunes Welcome Weary Feet in particular had that vibe for me. This one may be less genre hopping but feels very much the center of the KGLW sound.

[liebzz]

Gumboot Soup (2017)

Promising 5 albums in 2017 is delivered on New Year’s Eve with Gumboot Soup, maybe the album most like a collection of songs instead of a single thread, really encompassing all they accomplished in 2017. As excited for Polygondwanaland as I was, I enjoyed this one just as much. The songs are awesome, at times evoking late 60s Beatles while others scratching some heavy rock itches. I really loved every song here but really had an immediate connection with All is Known, and The Wheel. That said, if I were making a KGLW playlist, and that would be near impossible, possibly every song here would get serious consideration. A gem of an album even if it is the least focused since Oddments.

[HardTI]

liebzz thank you for these write ups. love them and keep coming back here to grab them to show people. it's a perfect way for people to get into kg quickly, when they can see what is what with these albums.

Changes might be their best album btw. absolutely blown away with this.

[liebzz]

Yeah I decided I will hit up Changes at the conclusion of this. I am excited for it even though they just released two excellent albums already this month. Ice, Death… might be a serious contender for AoTY for me personally.

[Ello Sailor]

Changes is indeed fantastic. I wasn't blown away by 'Hate Dancin', but the opening track is one of the best things they've ever done. I can't get over the drum sound. Cavs just keeps getting better. It's nutty.

[Higgs]

Yep, loving these write ups indeed. I'm travelling for work this week and will be Han Solo in a temp office while I'm away. I think I might do a KGLW run through as I go. Thanks for the inspo liebzz!

[liebzz]

Infest the Rats Nest (2019)

I knew this one was coming though I had never listened to it before. I was really curious what they would do with a heavy metal sound, even though it’s not typically in my wheelhouse. This album is great fun, and seems to embrace the caricature of a metal band with the growling vocal, speed of sound licks, and bashing drumming. The lyrics I picked up also seem sort of what you’d expect from a metal band - extreme metaphors that are dark and twisted to reflect perhaps societal ills. Hell even the album title hints pretty hard at this. All that said, it is a fun ride from start to finish.

[liebzz]

Fishing for Fishies (2019)

Whoops! I thought I posted this, but I must have forgotten. This a particularly humorous in light of the fact that this very well be my favorite album of theirs thus far. This is the second album in a row (after Gumboot Soup) that seems more focused on a collection of really strong songs over a central sonic theme. Fishing for Fishies, Boogieman Sam, The Bird Song, Cruel Millennial, Reals Not Real and This Thing are incredible. This again feels like the center point of their sound and it’s them at their best.