Album Review: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Quarters

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard certainly do things their own way. Having built a substantial level of hype – mostly through relentless gigging and recording – now might be the time to release a chart-bothering collection of fist-pumping rockers, right?

Or, if you make the rules up as you go along like these Melburnian longhairs do, you could take an unexpected psych-folk diversion by unleashing a weird rabbit hole of a record where each of the four songs is exactly ten minutes and 11 seconds. Understand the title now?

By far their mellowest statement to date, Quarters opens with the unexpectedly slinky funk of The River, which finds KG&TLW floating pleasantly into uncharted waters. It’s the sort of irresistible groove-bait that suggests they’ve been consuming Amorphous Androgynous’ A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble series for breakfast. God Is In The Rhythm glides on some nicely understated interplay, while Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer is a jaunty, sound effect filled ramble to the Emerald City. In comparison to the bad acid nightmares of their last release, I’m In Your Mind Fuzz, it’s a little lightweight, but KG&TLW are clearly one outfit who never stand still. Their evolution has felt like a journey in itself; from their skuzzy barbarian garage roots to the endless psych-rock riffs of Float Along – Fill Your Lungs to the new technicolour fantasies here. Next stop...? You tell me.