Omnium Gatherum
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are so free-ranging that the Melbourne shape-shifters usually devise a firm concept to corral their vision from album to album. Not so with their first-ever double LP, which began as a gathering of miscellany left over from previous writing sessions. Even that loose guiding theme fell away when more writing and recording ensued, resulting in an epic journey through King Gizz’s recent sweet spots. Opening with the 18-minute prog-punk odyssey “The Dripping Tap,” *Omnium Gatherum* weaves naturally through organ-driven hip-hop (“Sadie Sorceress”), eco-minded metal (“Gaia”), falsetto synth-funk (“Magenta Mountain”), and Krautrock-inspired wig-outs (“Evilest Man”). Such a whiplashing showcase of contrasts might sound extreme, but this particular double-decker is consistent and accessible enough to serve as a mid-career retrospective forged entirely from new material.
Dusting off practice-room staples and writing more new songs to go with them, the hyper-prolific Aussie rockers scrap their conceptual inclinations in favor of shredding for the sheer pleasure of it.
On 2022's double album Omnium Gatherum, the band abandon their usual way of constructing albums around a unified sound or theme and cut loose, jumping wildly from style to style -- some tried and true, some brand new.
For two years, Australia’s most relentless rockers King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard couldn’t record together. The pandemic essentially shutdown Melbourne, the band’s base of operations, not allowing the members to engage in the group recording sessions that spawned one of the most eclectic discographies in modern music, littered with genre hopping and fantastical silliness. Of course, that didn’t stop them from recording their parts remotely and releasing three albums during lockdown, followed by a vinyl only release earlier this year. Nice try god, but even pestilence can stop them. Maybe try famine next time?
17 albums in, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard could do with a surprising way of being unpredictable – Omnium Gatherum is a little stale