King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard 'Paper Mâché Dream Balloon' review

Image: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Revivalists of the acid induced sixties era, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are an immensely busy band and an experimental one at that.

Last year they released two records, Oddments escalated their unhinged take on a multitude of genres. I'm In Your Mind Fuzz, unfurled later in the year, stayed true to its title with a collection of fuzzed out psychedelic jams. 

Seemingly not content with their output, the Australian seven-piece dropped the Quarter EP, a series of four jams that each played out at 10 mins and 10 secs.

Where each release remained different during this astronomical run of material, each held the same thing in common: the outfit have always been partial to a left turn, and through an industrious use of instruments far greater than your traditional psych rock set up, they have garnered a wondrous melodic output. 

On their latest record Paper Mâché Dream Balloon, you'll struggle to find a glitter ball psych guitar; instead complexities of acoustic folk and jazz would make for perfect listening during the period in which the hallucinogenics are in fact wearing off. 

Opening track 'Sense' evokes the heavy eyes of a late night jazz bar with a spate of hushed vocals and slow grooving melodies.

Its title track meddles with a flute, gentle percussion and a harmonica before things turn slightly weird on 'Trapdoor'. Resonating as one of the more up-tempo numbers of the bunch, a sinister flute runs through the song like on an old film noir with an unnerving looping sample.

It's an utterly compelling listen that doesn't necessarily need to stray into a field of magic mushrooms to provoke a mind altering experience.

A further square is added to the patchwork with 'The Bitter Boogie', the longest stretch of the album that sees the harmonica return for a round of the blues. 

The last song 'Paper Mâché' paints the bands explorational intentions as it cycles through the melodies of each song and merges it into a snapshot of the whole record.

What's apparent here is that the band's experimental capabilities are endless. With each and every release you get the sense that if the world was more libertarian right now, then King Gizzard would be trailed by a legion of modern day Deadheads. 

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