Continuing on with the next 9 King Gizzard albums. Tune in next week for the final installment!

Murder of the Universe

This one is super far out and the kind of wacky that could only come from King Gizzard. They bring back the spoken word narration from Eyes except this time the backing music is their most intense yet, sludgy psych prog with spoken word which is sometimes a female narrator and at other times a robot voice. The stories told are over-the-top lovecraftian ridiculousness. It’s like if The Necromancer by Rush was an entire album. Lots of mellotron too (it pops up plenty on their other albums too). I also dig the additional texture that the harmonica adds to the chaos. (Ambrose’s harmonica is one of their most characteristic recurring instrumental features). There is so much narration that I almost think it would be preferable if those sections were just instrumental but it’s still a pretty amusing listen. Listening to a robot talk about how much it wants to vomit is pretty hilarious. The album consists of 3 suites divided into shorter tracks, but none of the short tracks work as isolated songs, so you’re forced to just dive into this thing headfirst.

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Sketches of Brunswick East

A collaboration with the artist “Mild High Club”. In contrast with the albums on either side of it this is a very chill and laid-back jazzy album and probably the most deep cut album in their whole discog. I really like the vibe of this record, it reminds me of a hazy stoned summer day. Lots of flute, organ, and psychedelic tremolo effects. But unlike their other brighter albums it is somewhat lacking in memorability. You totally forget it exists and then come back to it and rediscover it’s actually pretty good, but then it floats out of your head again once it’s over. “Countdown” “The book” “Tezeta” and “You can be your silhouette” are the best tracks. ?si=2mnSfcIA2rdHlZ1L

Polygondwanaland

In a fun move the band gave this album away for free. And by free I dont mean “pay what you want” I mean “public domain”. You can legally press and sell copies of this record and nobody will stop you, though good luck competing with everyone else who already did the same thing (discogs lists over 400 pressings!). The theme this time around is “polymeter” and they really go all in on those shifting rhythmic layers weaving through their now well established dark psych-rock sound. 7 played against 3 played against 4? sure why not? Genuinely tricky stuff, the amatur-hour days of 12 Bar Bruise are long gone now. These tracks are very intricately written, and I continue to admire how they can navigate these odd patterns so fluidly. They rarely give off that “look at us playing odd times!” vibe that some prog bands do. I think the reason why is that they keep the overall harmonic content fairly simple while the meter goes all over the place. The second side contains two 3-track suites where each section focuses on a different kind of meter juxtaposition. The title track is pretty catchy. Crumbling Castle borders on doom metal in points. This is a big fan favourite and rightfully so.

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Gumboot Soup

How is this band capable of being so prolific they can put out 5 albums in a year when many other major rock bands can barely put out one album every 5 years? The answer (other than just being workaholics) is that they usually start by setting goals for the premise of an album and then it’s like a school assignment where they have a common goal to follow through on and work towards together. (they also work on multiple albums simultaneously). But sometimes they do just write a bunch of random songs and put them out like a normal band. They really pinched this one out at the last minute (december 31 release date) in order to fulfill the 5-albums in a year promise after they were forced to abandon an entire other record that wasn’t working out yet (we’ll come back to that). What it lacks in cohesiveness it makes up for by having a great tracklist that touches on a number of the band’s different sounds, which makes sense as many of these tracks started life as outtakes from the previous several albums. A couple microtonal tunes here, a few polyrhythms there, some doomy metal-adjacent tracks, some whacked out jazzy psych pop. Makes for a great summation of the band’s career up to this point.

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Fishing For Fishies

One of their most fun records, though it’s a bit tricky to pin this one down. Most of this album is upbeat and cheery with the initial concept being a bluesy “boogie-woogie”-based album. A bit Elephant 6-ish with its good times psych-pop vibes, and a bit ZZ Top southern rock in others. But the theme kind of falls apart as the record goes along, eventually turning into their first significant foray into synthesizers with the Kraftwerk-like “Acarine” and “Cyboogie”. Some very colourful and zany arrangements. It was released almost simultaneously with Rats Nest and the pair feel like an intentional exercise in contrasts.?si=FanukQTSV8NiBYqf

Infest The Rats Nest

Stu pulls out his James Hetfield impression and they blast out a bunch of badass thrash tunes about humanity destroying the environment and evacuating earth. This album really boosted their notoriety since nobody expected them to be quite this good at thrash and it brought in a ton of Metalheads into the gizzard audience. There continues to be a portion of their fanbase that is so into their metal albums that they’ll complain whenever they don’t make heavy music.The tempos are faster, the guitar tones are chuggier, the vocals are shout-ier, and there’s more double kick drumming. Though once you digest the record I’ve noticed it’s really not that different from the hard psych rock on previous albums like Nonagon and Murder, it’s just a bit more direct and a bit less instrumentally varied.?si=dZOQhjUy87cUkxhx

KG

The microtones are back! Though there isn’t much of a theme beyond that. So this and its followup kinda sound like a bunch of “normal” King Gizzard songs, or as normal as psych rock songs written entirely on microtonal instruments can sound anyway. The turkish atmosphere of Microtonal Banana is somewhat absent this time as instead of following traditional microtonal scales they largely go ahead and invent their own. “Intrasport” “Honey” and “Straws in the Wind” are all certified gizzard hits. Also King Gizzard experienced their first, and so far only, lineup change. Their sometimes 2nd-drummer & frequent-player-of-literally-nothing Eric left the band. But you’d never know because he never did anything anyway, yay for Eric! Let us never speak of him again.

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LW

These are the two most similar albums in the band’s discography (the album covers even fit together). They could have released it as a double record, but that probably would have been too many microtones to swallow all at once. I go back and forth as to which I prefer but most people seem to lead towards this one. They are both pretty representative of the band overall though, so having them be (nearly) self-titled was a good choice. Also maybe worth noting that these two and the following album were largely made by sending files back and forth during the covid lockdown period, so there’s a bit less of that “band playing together in the same room” vibe than their other albums often have. “Ataraxia” “KGLW” and “O.N.E.” are my picks here.

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Butterfly 3000

We’re into synth-pop now. But with the added touch of it being a bit of a sequel to Polygondwanaland as we’re treated to another feast of polymeters. But because it’s mostly major key and full of bubbly moog tones and effervescent pop hooks, it goes down really easy. Sounds a bit Animal Collective or a bit Tame Impala-ish perhaps… if Tame Impala wrote songs in 33/8 (see: “Catching Smoke”). All the shifting rhythmic textures tickle my brain. A bunch of their catchiest songs are on here, “Shanghai” “Yours” “Dreams”. “Interior People” is probably a top 10 gizzard song for me. One of my favourites.

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