Throughout the past 12-15 months or so, the Melbourne, Australia-based psych rock sextet King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard have quickly become JOVM mainstays over that same period, and as you may recall the Melbourne-based sextet, comprised of Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitar, and flute), Ambrose Kenny Smith (synths, harmonica), Cook Craig (guitar), Joey Walker (guitar), Lucas Skinner (bass), Eric Moore (drums) and Michael Cavanagh (drums) have firmly cemented their long-held reputation for being incredibly prolific; in fact, the members of the Australian psych rock sextet have released four full-length albums this year, including their recently released album Pollygodwanaland, an effort that the band has encouraged everyone to download that includes instructions on how to convert and format the files to CD or vinyl.
Of course throughout their time together, the band has revealed a restlessly experimental tendency throughout their work, and while their earliest albums found the band blending elements of 60s surf rock, beach rock garage rock and psych rock with their later albums featured the band blending elements of film scores, prog rock, folk and soul with their two previously released albums — Flying Microtonal Banana and Murder of the Universe pushing their thematic concerns and sound in new, and darkly trippy directions.
“Crumbling Castle,” Pollygodwanaland’s first single will further cement the Australian psych rock outfit’s long-held reputation for expansive and unusual song structures; in fact, repeated listens reveal some of the most nuanced guitar playing I’ve heard in some time paired with a sinuous bass line, some ominous and menacing layers of arpeggiated synths, ethereal flute, complex polyrhythms — and while nodding at Thee Oh Sees, Rush and others, the track may arguably be one of their most expansive and experimental, as the song consists of several different time signatures and disparate sections twisting and turning over each other, in a hallucinogenic fashion.
The recently released video continues the band’s ongoing collaboration with Jason Galea, who has created trippy, retro-futuristic, VHS-like visuals that seem to undulate with the music.
