King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard are a unique indie group, for more reasons than just its bizarre, lengthy name. First, the band falls into an interesting subgenre split of garage rock and psychedelia that typically is reserved for bands like Thee Oh Sees. Second, its album names are just as ridiculous as its band name.
The group’s newest release, “Flying Microtonal Banana,” while sounding like the butt of an indie-rock parody joke, packs a lot of punch in just nine tracks. The instrumentation is much akin to other garage rock setups, with several guitars, a typical drum kit, mildly distorted vocals with a touch of reverb and a wealth of fuzz. KGatLW doesn’t play by typical garage rock rules, however, and will often bring in absurd pitch shifting pedals, odd synth instrumentation, chimes and bagpipe emulators, among other things to keep their sound incredibly unique. This album in particular is quite adherent to this regard, being its most experimental and unique album yet.
Previous works by the band bordered more heavily on grungy, semi-instrumental tracks that had elements of math rock interspersed throughout. This album shifts heavily in favor of psychedelia however, making very acute use of exotic, shifting melodies and foreign sounding instrumentation to evoke the vibe of an Arabian desert acid trip. Perhaps the most compelling feature of this album is the unique rhythmic features of the instrumentation, with mysterious, snakelike riffs on the guitar and a phrenetic work of percussive accompaniment from the drums.
Down to the lyrics, this is an album meant to sound as bizarre and unreal as the band and album name itself. They’re equally fascinating and nonsensical, with the titular track “Flying Microtonal Banana” reading like a sand-laden journey through Lewis Carroll’s back-catalogue. The image conjured can only be that of a snake charmer in wonderland.
KGatLW is a band not easy to recommend; not for lack of quality, but for lack of resemblance to any other bands out there. Sure, there are similarities to the distortion touting giants like Thee Oh Sees and Fuzz, but truly it is impossible to predict whether a potential listener will enjoy this particular brand of garage-psychedelia, even if the listener has heard their previous albums. “Flying Microtonal Banana” is unique in every sense of the word. Though it can be broken down into familiar elements — reverb-heavy vocals, driving percussion and fuzz pedals — the product of the whole is utterly of its own kind. This is an album in a class of its own.
To speak of the positives and negatives as best can be said, “Flying Microtonal Banana” is an extremely cohesive work, and while it may be bizarre, it is not so experimental as to be considered separate from what the average person recognizes as music. It adheres enough to its base genres to be recognizable and, in fact, quite catchy. However, the positives and negatives meet when speaking of instrumentation. While some listeners will be drawn to the strange, wailing sounds that characterize the exotic instrumentation of the album, others will be put off immediately and potentially annoyed. It is advised that those curious listen for themselves, as there is no other way to come to an opinion about this album. One thing is for sure, however: This is not an album for the close-minded.
