King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard are back with their new long-player, Nonagon Infinity. After the acid-flecked cosmic jazz of Quarters and the hazy, pastoral, acoustic bliss of Paper Mache Dream Balloon, Nonagon Infinity sees the Gizzard once again dive head-long into the gonzo freak-beat frenzy that mark both their debut I’m In Your Mind Fuzz, and their perpetually-in-motion, double-drummer propelled live show.
This high-octane, face-melting 9-song collection has been ingeniously crafted as the world’s first infinitely looping LP – each track seamlessly flows into the next, with the final song linking straight back into the top of the opener.
Recorded at Daptone Studios in Brooklyn, work on the album began in 2014, around the release of the bands acclaimed LP I’m In Your Mind Fuzz. Ever-prolific, it took King Gizzard two years and two additional albums to fine-tune the concept and music that would become Nonagon Infinity. In that time the group has zigzagged between 1960s beach-pop, stripped down acoustic psych, and densely packed prog, while always keeping the seeds of Nonagon Infinity fertile.
This all makes Nonagon Infinity an intricate, astonishing culmination. “We really wanted to focus on things that felt good live,” explains frontman Stu Mackenzie. “We’d grab a little riff here or a little groove there, and we’d jam on them and form songs. I wanted to have an album where all these riffs and grooves just kept coming in and out the whole time, so a song wasn’t just a song, it was part of a loop, part of this whole experience where it feels like it doesn’t end and doesn’t need to end.”
Last year’s Paper Mache Dream Balloon was met with the best reviews of the band’s career. Rolling Stone declared them “one of the most compelling collectives of art-rock experimentalists in recent years.”King Gizzard will tour extensively in the USA throughout May behind Nonagon Infinity, with some dates already sold out. Keep your ears peeled for those Australian tour dates you know the Gizz will have something extra special in store for their homeland once they return.
Nonagon Infinity is available today from Remote Control Records and via iTunes.
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television