POLYGONDWANALAND

King Gizzard is a fascinating band because of their many facets and prolific output, but this sheer amount of, and variety in their albums can also make it a bit difficult to decide where to start. After listening to some tracks off different albums on YouTube, I found myself impressed and/or intrigued by quite a lot of their stuff, which only made it harder.

Thankfully, in 2017, KGLW decided to release one of their five albums that year into the public domain. The idea being that fans would have access to the audio files and a whole lot of images and would print their own CDs, LPs, and tapes. Being a free download on their website, it was an easy entry point for little old overwhelmed me, and as it turns out, it's a great one.

This album has completely hooked me on KGLW, and immediately made me buy some more of their albums (as well as an official CD of this one). Every album in their discography has a main catch, theme or idea that sets it apart from their others: this album is a progressive rock album full of polyrhythms, and with very little in 4/4. They still manage to make everything rather accessible, and you'll find getting into the rhythms easy, since, despite the proggy rhythms, there aren't really many moments where the songs shift suddenly or change in tempo. It's a bit of a softer album for KGLW at times (not a lot of loud guitars for their standards, but a lot of flutes and soft vocals), but this is a band that always manages to keep the energy up. They simply always sound like they're having fun, and it's a very good sounding album ? despite their tendency to have a very loud mix.

The songs here are quite complex in some ways, but they don't have the craziest structures. Instead, nine of the songs here are part of one of three 3-song medleys. Outside of the first of these medleys, there isn't much here to connect the songs musically, but there is a lyrical theme in all of them. The arrangements and rhythms make for a very 'mysterious' vibe throughout these tracks. The only track that isn't part of a medley is the opening "Crumbling Castle". This is a fantastic introduction to the album. It's a bit more high-energy, but has a lot of moments where you hear the same mysterious sound as the rest of the album and it immediately transports you to the world KGLW want to take you. It ends with a characteristically LOUD Gizzard outro and feedback noises ? probably the coolest moment on the album, though the eerie way Stu declares he has become a god in a cool stereo effect on the last two tracks comes close.

I could describe the rest of the songs, but we would be here all day with how much there is to go over, and I just implore everyone who is reading this to give this album a listen for themselves. It's a free download (is that even that relevant of a factor these days now that streaming has taken over?), so you got no excuse. Even if you bounced off KGLW previously for one reason or another, they're such a varied band, it's worth the chance of losing 45 minutes of your life. This should be up most prog-fans alleys I reckon. Keep in mind that there are official CDs and LPs from the band itself available, if you prefer that. The raw audio files actually have a tiny bit of silence between each tracks, which is a problem because most songs here flow into each other, so you have to edit that out yourself if you go the download route, and who knows how well (or at all) fan bootlegs have edited that.

Rating: 10/10

Highlight of the album: "Crumbling Castle"