King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Share ‘Kepler-22b’
This Friday, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard will release their new album, Omnium Gatherum. Today, they present one of its singles, Kepler-22b. The track samples Barney Mcall’s Yemaya One, and the accompanying video directed by Alex McLaren reflects its vibrant, electric instrumentation. “I actually found Barney’s record at a store in New York,” says Cook Craig. “I hadn’t heard any of his stuff before, but remember putting it on and being blown away straight up. I remember thinking damn this is literally a sampler’s dream. It took me a while before I actually realised he was from Melbourne too. I guess it’s funny like that, sometimes you gotta travel halfway around the world to discover an inspiring piece of music made by someone who probably lives on the same block as you.”
McLaren explains the inspiration behind the video: “Sean and I wanted to have a mix of different animation styles. The initial aesthetic inspiration was taken from classic abstract painted jazz album covers, then fused with a Cruise ship aesthetic that came to us once Ambrose sent some reference footage through of the band in longing around in Hawaiian shirts.”
Following 2020’s KG and 2021’s LW and Butterfly 3000, Omnium Gatherum was the first time King Gizzard recorded together as a band since the COVID pandemic hit, and Melbourne placed its citizens under a series of prohibitive lockdown measures. Omnium Gatherum’s sprawling 16 tracks of gonzoid prog jams, dizzying pop nuggets, rubber-legged hip-hop odysseys and passages of pure thrash-metal abandon offer plenty for Gizzard fans and neophytes alike to chew on. Typically, Gizzard albums pursue a single theme or style – for example, Infest The Rat’s Nest’s eco-themed metal barrage, or Butterfly 3000’s new age trance-pop, or Nonagon Infinity’s endless garage-prog contortions – and part of the thrill of Omnium Gatherum for the group was the opportunity of new ideas without committing to deliver an entire album in that vein. It’s the perfect entry point for newcomers, and a solid treat for the faithful as well.
Omnium Gatherum feels like a Greatest Hits album, in its variety and the strength of the songs – only you’ve never heard any of these tracks before. It’s the sound of a group operating at their absolute peak, a group motivated by a deserved confidence that they could try their hands at anything. It’s also the sound of a group ready to return to the road after two fallow years – a handful of live shows in Australia, performed in the brief windows between lockdowns, has reawakened King Gizzard’s taste for live action.
PRE-ORDER ALBUM
OMNIUM GATHERUM TRACKLISTING:
- The Dripping Tap
- Magenta Mountain
- Kepler-22b
- Gaia
- Ambergris
- Sadie Sorceress
- Evilest Man
- The Garden Goblin
- Blame It On The Weather
- Persistence
- The Grim Reaper
- Presumptuous
- Predator X
- Red Smoke
- Candles
- The Funeral
