King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard: Phantom Island (digital outlets)

 |   |  <1 min read

Deadstick
King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard: Phantom Island (digital outlets)

On their 27th album since 2012, Melbourne's psychedelic jam-band flatly refuse to be categorised easily with this beefy, orchestrated collision of horn-driven rock'n'soul (Deadstick), rocking left-field folk with flute and strings (Lonely Cosmos) and something like a heavily medicated ELO pulled towards funky space-rock (Eternal Return).

There's a fair bit of cosmic prog-rock here too on Spacesick, and Aerodynamic where the singer, adrift on a ship, speaks to the moon saying, "I have always wondered if I could step out of my body would I be a fish out of water, or like a school in harmony? So, Miss Moon if I could have one wish, I'd turn my hands into wings. I’d say goodbye to the fish and I'd jump from the highest cliff".

On the country-rock pastoral Sea of Doubt which follows (with flute and strings again) we find the singer “on the edge of a cliff, gazing into an abyss”.

That and the cover might offer clues to what's going on a concept album conceived in a multi-coloured world which can be seductively melodic (Silent Spirit with horns) or like a tripped-out San Francisco band in the late 1960s (Grow Wings and Fly).

The queue for Gizzheads forms on the left.

.

You can hear this album at bandcamp here.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Various: Wounded Heart of America; Tom Russell Songs (Hightone)

Various: Wounded Heart of America; Tom Russell Songs (Hightone)

Some weeks ago I was invited to give a talk about some of my favourite music to a group of people in someone's home. It was a very pleasant night and the first few things I played were either by... > Read more

BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2010 Devils Elbow: Sand on Chrome (Hit Your Head)

BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2010 Devils Elbow: Sand on Chrome (Hit Your Head)

This raw, sometimes wilfully ragged and largely terrific duo of Alec Withers (vocals, guitars) and drummer-singer Andrew Gladstone formerly in Garageland (and a couple of friends in places) deliver... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

John Mayall: Nobody Told Me (Forty Below/Southbound)

John Mayall: Nobody Told Me (Forty Below/Southbound)

Now 85, John Mayall is like the great-grandfather of British blues. More than half a century ago however he was akin to a wise uncle for a generation of players at least a decade younger than... > Read more

THE UNFORGIVEN, a film by JOHN HUSTON (Triton DVD)

THE UNFORGIVEN, a film by JOHN HUSTON (Triton DVD)

Not to be confused with Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven -- or the excellent if short-lived outlaw-rock band of the same name -- The Unforgiven from 1960 is one of John Huston's ambitious Westerns, cast... > Read more