You may have assumed that King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are just not for you. This band of shaggy-haired Australian larrikins release records at such a furious clip – 25 in just over 10 years, and that’s before you even address the hatful of live albums they’ve dropped on Bandcamp in that time – that most casual listeners would be forgiven for not venturing in at all. Those albums are often concept-driven in a way that can be intimidating to those without any technical musical knowledge (three are based around microtonal tuning) or any interest in taking a massive bong rip before hitting play (2017’s Murder of the Universe is a three-part spoken-word album about cyborgs, monsters and human consciousness). And, of course, their band name is King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
But don’t underestimate the Gizz, or the Wizz, or the Lizz, or however you want to shorten it. They’re fine pop songwriters – check 2015’s Paper Mâché Dream Balloon if gentle, bossa nova-inflected folk is your thing – and fastidious producers, expanding their garage sound to encompass funk, jazz and dance music. Their tales of monsters and witchcraft have always been more complex than they might seem on first listen – any sci-fi writer will tell you that coherent worldbuilding is far harder than it seems – and in recent years they’ve also addressed societal discord, corporate greed and the climate crisis with great empathy.
