LAMINATED DENIM

With a band so prolific as King Gizz, it's very difficult to see the forest through the trees. They have made many gems. and on top of that, they made nice albums that are non-essential for the casual listener.

This album, the second one released in October 2022, is such a non-essential listen. I'm convinced that the real Gizz fan will disagree. Because it again is a high-quality record (especially when you compare it with what dominates the charts). The album has two 15-minute tracks, both enjoyable. But it is not one of the ten must listen of the band.

2 stars from me. They made two better albums this year.

King Gizzard's style gets cleaner and tighter with every album they release, and Laminated Denim has certainly not been a departure from this trend. This album sounds like they were riding the jam waves from their last release IDPLML, but now added some core elements from Polygondwanaland.

-The Land Before Timeland 8/10: Telling a story of being freed from the curse of Timeland, the song begins with the slow and heavy beat of drums gradually fading into an uplifting lyric section. An immediate stand-out is the ear-catching atmospheres crafted throughout the song, accompanied by the chugging drums from Cavanagh as the rest of the band pulls out catchy wah-fueled jams from their pockets. The ending section brings me chills and seals together the entire song, at around 12 min the track breaks down to an increasingly darker, faster and louder trance until it suddenly fades to a huge foreboding wash of synth, a true callback to the prog masterpiece from 2017.

-Hypertension 8/10: Another great sonic atmosphere in this one, but with less of a centralized focus that pulls it all together. Looking at each instrument on its own however, this track is more technically impressive than its predecessor. The band's sound starting around 7 min is thoroughly spectacular, with Stu and Joey having some incredible harmonic passages where they seem to completely ascend. The drums similarly take off here, masterfully controlling the undulating flow of the jam - there are a number of sections where the vigor of the rides alone could carry the entire band. Perhaps my favorite elements in this one, the fuzzy guitars bring a colossal sound with them that creates the defining breaks in this track, with it all gradually rising and converging to a fulfilling energy release right at the end.

All in all, I do wish it had a darker undertone and more references to the Polygond storyline, but I will be coming back to this album frequently. If you enjoy hearing technical skills at work then I believe you will absolutely enjoy this album, if you've come for a strongly defined overarching concept and heavy hitting lyrics, then unfortunately you will not get as much out of this one.

Who can complain about more King Gizz in their lives? A band with such a consistently good discography with works of all varieties. They never leave me bored, and they haven't now. This is their 2nd studio release this month after their mouthful of a record Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, And Lava. In this album, we get a sequel to their once vinyl exclusive I.D.M. album, Made In Timeland, a 30-minute album with two 15-minute songs. Much like that album, we have a 30-minute record with two 15-minute songs, however, they continue their more jammy sound from Omnium Gatherum (specifically in The Dripping Tap) and Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, And Lava, combing their psychedelic progressive rock sound, with a bit of a space rock or krautrock tint to their lense. Believe it or not, this is one of the strongest and most masterfully done Gizzard records I have heard so far in their career, strangely enough.

The first of only two songs, The Land Before Timeland, introduce you into this world the band has made up and takes you on a tour through lush guitars, harmonies, drummings, and melodies that wrap you around this rather calm yet still jammy song. What I love most about this is that even with the calm demeanor you can still feel the rising action. As the song progresses things get faster, more chords are introduced, and this jovial sense of wonder gets refined more and more. It doesn't blow down the doors at the end, but there is a clear sense of movement and change within the music. I just adore the mood this song has. It is so fun and bouncy that it just makes me get into a good mood. This applies to most King Gizzard songs but here is how they capture it and let it ride and rise through this 15-minute jam makes me, in my mind, clap with joy. This is an aspect that I dig with the original Made In Timeland album and while things felt within the same song, you can tell things changed despite the consistency. Here they also do that but even better. It doesn't even feel like 15 minutes, it is like taking a nice long shower and getting out as if time hadn't passed at all. It is almost spooky how a good long song does that. What a song, and it isn't even the only one.

With the rising action of The Land Before Timeland, we jump into Hypertension, which is also fantastic. Here you can fear their energy just pouring, but still retaining the beauty and happiness the last song portrayed. I love King Gizzard due to how no matter what genre they twist and turn to they will always keep the mood up consistently. Never once in their discography, from their garage rock era to their brief ventures in synthpop did I feel their vibes and energy lose their weight. I think here they are capturing that energy into a photograph and stapling it in their photo album because I can just feel it all with this song. Fast-moving guitars, unique drum patterns, eccentric vocals, extremely satisfying bass patterns, and even some keyboards were added in for good measure. Every aspect here plays a role, and the roles they play are so well done that the band can play a game of chess blindfolded and still win. They are just that well performed. That ending too of those choir singing-like synths just raises the bar further and further until it falls apart and we get back into the fun-filled jams until that also falls apart with an immediate release of tension that builds up throughout the record. I'd say that is a great way to end this boisterous record.

Funny how one of the shortest King Gizzard albums turns out to be one of, if not the best albums they have put out. Just two songs and it's already one of my favorite albums of this year. It is such a fun listen that does not take very long in establishing itself in my brain. It is fast, jovial, and some of the best works the band has put out in this month, if not in this year, if not in their entire careers. I recommend listening to this. Grab a pair of headphones and just let the music wash you away with those groovy grooves and those beautiful arrangements.

The Australian psychedelic jam band whose mission, as they seem to have taken upon themselves, is to spread joy and cheer across the globe has graced us with five studio albums in 2022. Thank the Universe for King Giz! Long live the King!

1. "The Land Before Timeland" (15:00) a jam that sounds like Daevid Allen & Company playing over the CAN rhythm section contains a bit too simplified, drawn out themes and riffs for my enjoyment. In fact, I find the presence of the harmonica and high-pitched rhythm guitar chords actually annoy me. It's not until the final synth-drenched two minutes of READIOHEAD-like sound that I find myself interested and engaged. (25/30)

2. "Hypertension" (15:00) from the beginning this one is very different from the album's opener: with a very Afro-pop rhythmic base (deep bass, syncopated drumming, rhythm and lead guitars going idiosyncratically at the same time), in short, there's just a lot wider range of information coming into the listener throughout every bar of this song than the previous nearly-one-dimensional song. The lead guitar solo in the fourth minute threatens to drive the song into monotony but then he spreads his wings and the rest of the band is then able to return to their funkier explorations within the wide parameters allowed by the original groove. We return to the choral-vocal at the 5-minute mark while the band temporarily pulls back, leaving a more spacious soundscape over which the singers can have our fullest attention, but, by the end of the sixth minute, we're back to the multiple tracks of individuality noodling their way around in their happy-go-lucky way while creating a fairly perfect weave. In the eighth minute everybody finds themselves synching up in a fairly "stuck" pattern for a bit--which gives perspective to the individuals' relative freedom the rest of the song. Though the drums have become fairly metronomic by the end of the eighth minute, the basses continue to fly around their fretboards with relative ease and freedom, which is nice, while everybody else seems to have fun picking up any and every sound and instrument they whimsically desire to try. The eleventh minute feels similar to some recent MOTORPSYCHO guitar-centric jams while the joyfulness of the second half of the twelfth reminds me of something PARLIAMENT or CAMEO might have done and the thirteenth has some Edge-y U2-ishness, while the fourteenth seems to go the way of XTC and SEVEN IMPALE before coming back to the flute and choral vocals for the end. So much fun and exuberance! A early flawless epic jam. (29.5/30)

Total Time 30:00

A-/4.5 stars; two excellent prog jams that, together, don't quite account for a full album of music; thus, rated down for brevity.

Consisting of a pair of 15-minute tracks, Laminated Denim is The Gizz's second album of October 2022 and their fourth of the year overall. "The Land Before Timeland" is archetypal KGLW with sunshiney vocals, jazzy, jammy guitars, and that distinctive honking harmonica. Some of the jamming is nice, but it ultimately doesn't quite reach the heights of their best work. The closing two minutes feature some striking instrumental interplay, however. This probably could have been trimmed down into a stronger nine-minute song. The other song, "Hypertension", channels Polygondwanaland quite clearly. The vocals and compositional choices call to mind that album's overt progginess. The instrumental parts here have some lovely space-jazz flavors to them, though it can occasionally drag on longer than needed. Much like the previous cut, "Hypertension" has a thrilling climax, and it could have benefitted from a little trimming.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2022/12/26/odds-ends-december-26-2022/