King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – ‘L.W.’ OUT NOW!

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have this morning released their seventeenth studio album L.W. The album serves as a direct follow-up to last year’s full-length K.G., and is the third volume in the band’s explorations into microtonal tunings (which began with 2017’s Flying Microtonal Banana). Listen to the album HERE. The band has also shared a new video artwork by long time collaborator Jason Galea. “Jase went to the bowels of hell and captured this incredible footage” – Stu Mackenzie. Check it out HERE.

On L.W. very different – and occasionally wonky – worlds collide. Album opener ‘If Not Now, Then When?’ morphs from mangled eastern rock into taut funk in a manner that somehow makes complete sense, while the amorphous and exotic ‘Pleura’ is a pungent gumbo of heady microtonal strings, tumescent riffs and endless surprises. Then there’s the slinky ‘Ataraxia’ which slithers like a sidewinder through the dusty catacombs of the imagination and the utterly disorientating ‘See Me’, which is nothing less than the national anthem of a scorched planet hitherto undiscovered. Here is an album that pulls, pushes and contorts western music into new shapes. Though some might categorise it as such, this is not ‘world music’ but ‘universal music’.

With a green initiative implemented via the band’s Bandcamp page, “each download of L.W. comes with tree (that’s right tree). $1 from every download will be donated to Greenfleet, who plant native biodiverse forests in Australia and New Zealand.  We’re aiming to make 2000 downloads which is enough to revegetate 1,000m2 at Pearsons Block in Central Victoria. Some of the species endemic to this region include Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora), Varnish Wattle (Acacia verniciflua) and Sweet Bursaria (Bursaria spinosa).  You will be creating habitat for the local wildlife species, playing a vital role in reconnecting parts of the Wychitella Biolink. Some of the species known to the area are Lace monitors, Quolls and the vulnerable Mallee Fowl. Other native and endangered bird species can be found in the area as well, including Shy Heathwrens and Inland Thornbills.  Protected for 100 years, these trees will grow into a thriving and resilient forest restoring the native ecosystem in the area and increasing the overall biodiversity and resilience. Good stuff!” – Stu Mackenzie. More info on Greenfleet HERE.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are: Stu Mackenzie (vocals/guitar), Ambrose Kenny-Smith (harmonica/vocals/keyboards), Cook Craig (guitar/vocals), Joey Walker (guitar/vocals), Lucas Harwood (bass) and Michael Cavanagh (drums).

Album discography: 12 Bar Bruise (2012), Eyes Like the Sky (2013), Float Along – Fill Your Lungs (2013), Oddments (2014), I’m In Your Mind Fuzz (2014), Quarters! (2015), Paper Mache Dream Balloon (2015), Nonagon Infinity (2016), Flying Microtonal Banana (2017), Murder of the Universe (2017), Sketches of Brunswick East (2017), Polygondwanaland (2017), Gumboot Soup (2017), Fishing for Fishies (2019), Infest The Rats’ Nest (2019), Chunky Shrapnel (live album) (2020), K.G. (2020).