King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard is an Australian band formed in 2010. They already have a bunch of materials behind themselves (this is their seventh album, plus several EPs), with each one of them being kind of different from another one. For this new project they have decided to play with psychedelic pop rock, mostly with the one that was popular in 60s and 70s. You might confuse them with some retro band because they do not sound modern at all. Walking through psychedelic pop, they have succeeded to create a very intriguing music halls. They proved they are an experimentalist force to be reckoned with. Contrary to their previous album that had 10 minute long songs, this one has more songs that are classically formatted. Most of the songs are 3 minutes long, which proved very good for this type of experiment.
Via this landscape, we have got interesting sketches similar to those drawn by The Coral, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, The Apples in Stereo. Still, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard work in more mysterious ways. Opening track Sense is a chill track with few amazing sections. Bone falls somewhere between Woods and MGMT. The best moments come with title track Paper Mache Dream Balloon that has several rhythm shifts and N.G.R.I. (Bloodstain). The second one is definitely the craziest one on the record. It is just as they didn’t want any barriers between themselves and past times.
When someone produces so much material in such a short period of time, it is important that they are not repetitive. You always need to investigate new elements in your creativity. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard interjected this philosophy. This album is maybe their best effort yet and maybe it is how Tame Impala’s Currents should have sounded.
