King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have announced their 20th studio album, Omnium Gatherum. The Australian psych-rockers previewed the album, set to arrive “soon” from the band’s KGLW label, with the sprawling 18-minute lead single, “The Dripping Tap”.
Twelve years and 20 albums into their career, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are still breaking new ground. Omnium Gatherum will mark the band’s first-ever double LP. According to frontman Stu Mackenzie, the title is “literally Latin for ‘a collection of miscellaneous people or things.'” That’s exactly what fans should expect from Omnium, available for pre-order on March 22nd.
Following 2020’s K.G. and 2021’s L.W. and Butterfly 3000, Omnium Gatherum was the first time King Gizzard recorded together as a band since the onset of the COVID pandemic (the band released a vinyl-only album, Made In Timeland, on March 5th at a three-hour show in Melbourne and subsequently on its website). Omnium Gatherum began as a collection of previously unreleased songs that never made it onto prior releases, but soon snowballed as the band began writing new compositions. Born out of a hodgepodge of songs written throughout the years, Omnium breaks from KGLW’s previously established habit of releasing albums pursuant to a single theme. Stylistically, the 16 tracks jump from “gonzoid prog jams, dizzying pop nuggets, rubber-legged hip-hop odysseys and passages of pure thrash-metal abandon.”
“This recording session felt significant,” Mackenzie said. “Significant because it was the first time all six Gizzards had gotten together after an extraordinarily long time in lockdown. Significant because it produced the longest studio recording we’ve ever released. Significant because (I think) it’s going to change the way we write and record music – at least for a while… A turning point. A touchstone. I think we’re entering into our ‘jammy period’. It feels good.”
Related: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Share ‘Live In Brisbane ’21’ From Acoustic Show [Stream]
The album’s lead single, “The Dripping Tap”, is a microcosm of this stylistic expanse. The track shuffles from vintage soul homages to underground psychedelic decadence until it drones on into oblivion.
Stream “The Dripping Tap”, the lead single from the new King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard album Omnium Gatherum, via the player below. Pre-order the album beginning March 22nd on the band’s website. The band is preparing for a 2022 world tour, set to touch down in the United States on April 17th in Las Vegas, NV. For tickets and a full list of tour dates click here.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – “The Dripping Tap”
