POLYGONDWANALAND

King Gizzards Polygondwanaland to me, is one awesome album and quite notable for a few reasons. For one, I believe it explores new territories with a sweet somewhat ghosty sound as well as production choices that are very uniquely King Gizzard. On the other hand, it's an extremely popular modern progressive rock album (Well.... except on progarchives I suppose). I'm a younger guy and I have a lot of friends who are big into music but not exactly progressive rock outside of the usual culprits of Pink Floyd and King Crimson. However, we share one thing, and it's a love for this album. It's hard to pin down what genre King Gizzard is because they're constantly doing complete genre hops. Listen to Paper Mache Dream Balloon and Infest the Rats Nest. Yep, same band. It's on Polygondwanaland where they strap down and make a full blown prog album, though one could argue Murder of the Universe, Microtonal Banana and Nonagon fit into that genre comfortably (a sentiment I agree with). On Polygondwanaland we're just taken on a trip through twisting polyrhythmic mazes, creative and inspired song writing, and layers upon layers of very tasteful and interesting intertwining instrumentals. I think towards the middle and end it starts to lose a little momentum and sound just a bit "samey," but it's never bad and it really pulls it all back together with the closing track. The opening track Crumbling Castle is just a fantastic piece of music with not a dull moment across its nearly 11 minute runtime. Going from beautifully hypnotic, to menacingly heavy, to straight wall-melting sludge, this is a very dynamic and incredible piece of music that I think every prog fan, new or old, needs to give a listen to. We have mind bending guitar interplay on top of time signature galore, and what also needs to be highlighted are the unique throaty backing (and lead towards the end) vocals used all over this track. The title track is another very memorable tune with a gorgeous atmosphere driven by passionate vocals and acoustic guitars, especially in the final minute. Many of these tracks flow right into one another, tis the case here with The Castle in the Air kicking off straight out of the title track. The intro always brings a smile to my face because I just love this sound and vibe to this album and the little spoken word passage in the first minute is just one of those moments that exemplifies that. The verse kicks in and it's just once again a very unique and offbeat set of instrumentals and vocal deliveries that sounds like music from the future. Though this song is short, there are so many memorable passages within its brief runtime. Deserted Dunes Welcome Weary Feet is a very heavy and driving song in 7/8, once again great. The little synth breakdown towards the end is groovy as hell and in a way it scratches the same itch as the middle of Lunar Sea by Camel, but with much more a modern touch. Inner Cell is another monster of a song with a very dark and stomping feel to the instrumentation also including a very pretty chorus. Filled with strange and unconventional grooves, they manage to always make it feel seamless and never forced at any given moment. My second favorite song on the album. Loyalty/Horology are two tracks I generally consider to be as one both being on the shorter side flowing into one another. Loyalty has these crisp, piercing synths before the band comes together. The final minute of this song is amazing with these daunting vocal melodies and harmonies. Horology has a really cool windy palm muted guitar riff as well as these slick, somewhat breathy and ghosty vocals throughout. Tetrachromacy changes things up a bit with subtle middle eastern tinges, psychedelia and somewhat of a western feel to it on top of some staple elements of the album we're familiar with at this point. Searching is just a brief ambient journey into orbit, sort of like gong with more texture and modern production flourishes. The closing track The Fourth Color is my third favorite track on the album due to a really groovy main riff and general high energy throughout. I love the off the wall nearly acapella vocals towards the 2- minute mark almost channeling Gentle Giant for a moment. However, what they do with these disjunct vocals is just so damn cool, the drop right back into that nasty main riff I mentioned but the vocals keep going on top of it creating a grin-enducing polyrhythm. The song appears to end, but in the final 45 seconds there's a hidden track where they bring back what I think is a motif from Nonagon Infinity, it certainly has that energy. Essentially tying this album into a multi-album concept known as "The Gizzverse." Don't ask me to elaborate because i'm just as lost as you are :D

I can't wait to see what else King Gizzard has in store in the future. Rumor has it their new album should be out towards the end of this year, and allegedly, they have 3 coming in 2021. Who knows? Stranger things have happened, for example: 5 albums in 2017!