Australia’s King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have made a name for themselves over the past couple years as a unrelenting, cosmic ray of psychedelia. They are a powerhouse of shapeshifting music with seven members in the band and have a penchant for turning up the volume and letting the songs come together in a car crash of sound, guitars wailing and drums pounding. It is music to howl at the desert in.
However, band leader and flutist Stu Mackenzie and his band of down-under pranksters have followed a more pastoral path on it’s latest album, Paper Mache Dream Balloon. The album is a heady, acoustic-based batch of songs that tumble lightly around in your psyche and have you inclined to lay in the grass all day watching the clouds billow into different shapes. Where it’s previous work practically hit the sound barrier with its raging, 12-minute odysseys of noise, King Gizzard & The Lizard are more subdued in their pursuit of the psychedelic with an album that turns down the noise in order to focus on the melody.
With shimmering flute, gentle guitars and lackadaisical melodies, the album’s breezy mood certainly is reminiscent of the Flower Power-era of pastel paisleys. The sunny “Bone” sounds like it could have been a B-side on a Donavon single, while the easy rock and roll of “N.G.R.I. (Bloodstain)” has the quintessential sitar picking underneath the cute groove. The band certainly picks up a retro vibe on the album, but it never turns into copycat material and the psychedelic-folk aesthetic is carefully nurtured in their hands.
The mellow vibes of Paper Mache Dream Balloon allows the band to explore different sonic textures that wouldn’t work as well in the band’s usual amplified setting. The delightful easiness of “Sense” is given a surprise twist with a clarinet-driven hook, which turns out to be the best aspect of the song; it gives new credence to the clarinet in rock music. The piano plays a larger role on this album than in the rest of the band’s music and is pretty accompaniment on the perfect pop of “Most of What I Like” and acts as the firm backbone on the bluesy drone of “The Bitter Boogie.” The band took a more subdued path on Paper Mache Dream Balloon, though it was still successful in imparting your consciousness to follow the music wherever it might take you.
With two EP’s and seven albums in five years underneath its belt, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have shown to be a diligently productive entity. It is always looking to move forward and its latest release was a big step in progress by showcasing the band’s diversity in creating psychedelic pathways in a quieter setting. With either blaring guitar or quiet melodies, the band is going to flip your wig one way or the other.
Take a listen below: