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Rating: With such a name, there are two options: either you log onto Amazon immediately and succumb to compulsive buying or you dismiss the band under the category "2000s musical nonsense with a silly name." The undersigned, given the time he's spending jotting down a few lines about it, had the first reaction.
But who or what are King Gizzard and blah blah blah? They are simply an Australian septet devoted to a psychedelic garage transfigured by a playful and laid-back approach worthy of applause. The only real way to not be mere calligraphers of Nuggets is to try to explore spaces (especially interior ones) sometimes only contiguous to the garage sound. How? By taking inspiration from those idiots Thee Oh Sees, but without copying them and by adding to many tracks a filtered harmonica howling in the wind.
The initial quartet is astounding: if "I'm In Your Mind" travels trippy and groovy, its negation ("I'm Not In Your Mind") is an Egyptian garage with the Mummies arm in arm with the chants of any Italian football fan curve (listen to it to understand why). "Cellophane", a silly single with ultra-filtered vocals, a fuzzy harmonica, and a pounding lament in the background; finally the title track, which reprises the first track, taking it into space with phasers.
A different story for the continuation of the album, where rhythms slow down and an unexpected pop vein appears supported by an improbable flute that gives "Empty" or "Hot Water" a dreamy and distorted charm. The intriguing characteristic of these seven Australians is the ability to always find the sonic trick to make fundamentally melodic solutions less obvious, like in the beautiful suite "Am I In Heaven" which in its 7 minutes touches different chords while keeping attention incredibly high, combining folk intro, drumming hammer, rockabilly-like guitar riff, shouts and hollers, and a paranoid-lysergic tail.
The slow pieces are perhaps a bit weak, like the off-key ballad "Satan Speeds Up" or "Slow Jam 1" although the latter has its charm.
A quirky album from 2014.
Tracklist
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