When King Gizzard & The Lizzard Wizzard announced that they will issue five albums this year, even their fans (myself included), who were certain that they were certified crazy, thought that this would be too much, even for them.
They started the year with the exceptional venture into micro tonal music via Flying Microtonal Banana, proceeded with a psych/garage horror stories of Murder of the Universe, and now come up with psych jazz, um, sketches of Sketches of Brunswick East.
And when they say sketches, that is exactly what they mean. Taking a cue from a legendary Miles Davis album Sketches of Spain, Gizzard, in collaboration with LA’s Alex Brettin of Mild High Club, actually devote their sketches to Brunswick East, a Melbourne suburb, a place they came from originally.
Taking a cue from Miles Davis is no accident. The microtonal research of Flying Microtonal Banana took them on a more detailed exploration of jazz, as seen through their psychedelic eyes and Battin was definitely obliged to help.
Battin gives a kind of a Steely Dan keener to Gizzard on Sketches, and they jointly take a ride through various jazz styles, from mellow bop ("Sketches of East Brunswick" I and II), bossa nova (“Spider and Me”), Ethipiques style variations of “Tezeta” and elsewhere. All this though is passed through the usual Gizzard psych filter as on “The Book”, and shows that the septet plus Battin have done their homework properly.
Some might feel that the ‘sketchy’ concept is a bit annoying and that the songs do not have a ‘proper’ conclusion - most of the tracks just evaporate into the ones that follow. But then, you quickly lose notice of that and get the impression of them as a unified whole. Sketches should be as such, anyway.
The courage of King Gizzard & The Gizzard Wizzard to venture into territories unknown is not only admirable, they have been able to shed one lizard skin and put on another as if they were a part of their daily wardrobe, and so far, each of those suits fits them to a tee.
Certainly, among the fans, some will prefer one variation more than the other. Personally, Sketches of Brunswick East and Flying Microtonal Banana will be more played than Murder of the Universe, but then it seems Gizzard & the Flying Lizzard will be going for some other tastes too.
