When back in the Sixties droves of musicians, rock or jazz went to the Middle East and further down towards the Indian Ocean, they brought back much more than just different “herbs and spices”. Out of their bag of tricks, they brought, among other things, microtonal style of music - basically different tunings, that gave their music another touch.
Jazz musicians of the day took the lead, coming up with astral and spiritual jazz. Rock musicians followed. Don’t go any further than one of Sixties staple tunes “In The Past” (forget the Chocolate Watch Band’s diluted version, try the one by We The People).
So King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard decide to go the “mystic” path. They are currently competing for the title of the kings of modern psychedelia anyway - in the last five-six years they have come up with nine albums in which they have turned previous psychedelic styles into true academic research subject. With varying degrees of success, but never under a certain high level of quality coming the way of the listeners. And so they continue and will continue since they say that they will have five albums on the way this year only.
For starters, “Flying Microtonal Banana” sounded like quite a gimmicky proposition - all the members of the band were to explore the microtonal theme, and were even given a certain budget to modify their instruments so to adapt to the style.
After quite a few listens, I can certainly confirm one thing - there’s definitely not that many good things you can come up with $200 per musician. In short, this is probably the best album King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard have come up so far. Key thing - the guys have obviously have had a lot of fun and enjoyment creating this music, and it shows.
They have not only gotten a clear vision of the influences which steered them through the microtonal theme but have also employed everything they have learned so far about psychedelia in general. Pick up any of the songs here - from the opener “Rattlesnake”, or fantastic “Open Water”, or a bit heavier sounding “Doom City” - everything fits. Whether it is the album’s musical theme or the construction of the songs that are trimmed of any musical fat - no useless soloing, some modern musicians with psychedelic leanings lean towards.
I’ve no idea what The Gizzards will resort to next, but with “Flying Microtonal Banana” they definitely outdid themselves. So Far. Let's hope they surprise us again.
