King Gizzard And The Lizard WizardFlying Microtonal Banana
Flightless / Remote Control

- It was literally only months ago when I was expressing its enthusiasm about the last album from King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Nonagon Infinity. For those familiar with the ARIA-winning psych collective, this comes as little surprise, as a dizzying productivity rate is part of the whole KG experience. But even by their prolific standards, 2017 looks set to be a crazy year for the band, as they aim to release no less than five studio albums . This is something to be both excited and cautious about; sure, such dizzying ambition can have fans flushed with admiration, but as any Prince fan will tell you, quantity doesn’t always equal quality.

For now, however, King Gizzard hasn’t let us down. New album Flying Microtonal Banana is another consistently brilliant record, albeit flavoured differently to its propulsive predecessor. This record is their self-proclaimed experiment in microtonal tuning, complete with modified instruments. What this means for the listener is a series of songs that play with Middle Eastern-influenced scales and melodies, albeit with the hypnotic grooves for which we know the band.

The opening track Rattlesnake is the tune which most resembles the aforementioned Nonagon Infinity, with its relentless motorik beat and almost demented, gleefully simplistic melody. The remaining songs are more loose-limbed rhythmically, while that Middle Eastern influence is made even more explicit by the regular appearance of zurna, a Turkish horn that emits an atmospheric wail. This instrument works well in Billabong Valley, almost like a traditional Australian ballad bent into Anatolian shapes.

One of the most effective collisions between Turkish and Australian psychedelia comes in the form of Open Water, characterised by an almost Madchester beat and a beautiful guitar refrain. With its ominous throat-singing intro, penultimate track Nuclear Fusion soon gives way to a trippy organ-led groovy trudge, before the closing title track farewells us with an instrumental bed of howling zurna, raga-style drones and folky guitar picking.

So while this is yet another in King Gizzard’s long line of regular long-form releases, we still get to enjoy consistently engaging music from the band. It manages to work not only as a love letter to Turkish psychedelia and folk styles, but they also make these non-Western influences fit their own music like a glove. At the end of the day, they still sound like King Gizzard banging out another series of effortlessly cool tunes.

- Matt Thrower.

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