- Oddments is the fourth record released by Geelong’s prolific seven-piece, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, dropping a mere six months since their last EP. It’s hard to believe that any band could come up with enough decent material to warrant such an intense cycle of touring and recording, and to some extent that King Gizzard probably missed the chance to release a truly great album in favour of a string of pretty good ones. But in doing so the band have preserved a rawness to their music that is usually beaten out of a record during heavy handed or tedious production sessions.

In Oddments King Gizzard draw on a variety of influences, frequently cherry-picking the best parts of fuzzy 60s psychedelia and surf-pop, drawn together with sporadic instrumental tracks and clever production techniques.

The album opens with Alluda Majaka, a three minute instrumental track that begins with samples of natural sound and an East Asian vibe before it morphs into a 60s organ-driven groove that would be perfect for a montage in any movie about a Los Vegas heist. Stressin’ is more laid back with soft vocals and an offbeat rhythm and a fantastic bass solo in the latter half of the song.

Lead single Vegemite is about as literal as the chorus of “I love Vegemite” would suggest; the track is quite simply an ode to every Aussie’s favourite spread. As an individual track it’s a simple and humorous concept, though in the scope of the broader album it serves to remind you that King Gizzard are not in favour of convention or easy-listening. The jarring effect of Vegemite is juxtaposed with It’s Got Old; a catchy pop song with less psychedelic fuzz and more acoustic guitar with a slow clap in the percussion.

ABABCd is a short and sweet 17 seconds of fuzzy rock that leads into Sleepwalker, a dreamy psychedelic-pop with a quirky rhythm and plenty of Theremin. Comparatively, Hot Wax roughs up the vocals and delves into the dirtier, static and reverb-heavy 60s psych and the guitar-lead melody in Crying heavily contrasts yet again.

The album finishes with title track, Oddments, which is really less of an actual song, more a 25 second fast-paced outro. It’s an unexpected ending but King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard are not the kind of band to follow convention. While this method does lead them down a few stray paths at times, given the plethora of Australian bands making fuzzy garage psychedelic rock, it’s extremely refreshing to have a band focused on how far they can push their music, rather than be entirely focused on creating an album that meets expectations.

- Clare Armstrong.