★★★★½
We can usually find them freaking out in Northern California alongside Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall, but new synths, soaring Moogs and recurring motifs tell us King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard have travelled to late 1960s England for a ritualistic slaughter with Hawkwind on their new LP,Nonagon Infinity.
On opener ‘Robot Stop’, Stu Mackenzie sings punk (“Loosen up / Fuck shit up”), until turning psychedelic on ‘Big Fig Wasp’ (“Insects grow / In my bones”), making it unclear if one is to pull the clenched fist out from the other side of the bedroom wall or drain the skull of the melted brain inside it.
Like Hawkwind, Gizz have created an unearthly landscape. If I’m In Your Mind Fuzz was the gothic fortress, Nonagon Infinity is the wasteland that surrounds it. Dehydration leads to delusion, and the T. Rex-esque ‘Mr. Beat’ gets you dancing to prove it. The flute, light drumming and finger-picked guitar of ‘Invisible Face’ bring a moment of tranquillity before it’s fucking destroyed by a screech of feedback, and the opening guitar/synth riff returns to remind you where you started.
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard’sNonagon Infinityis out now through Flightless/Remote Control.
