''Omnium Gatherum'' is the 20th studio album and first
double album
A double album (or double record) is an audio album that spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording i ...
by Australian
psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...
band
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are an Australian rock band formed in 2010 in Melbourne, Victoria. The band's current lineup consists of Stu Mackenzie, Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Cook Craig, Joey Walker, Lucas Harwood and Michael Cavanagh. They are ...
, released on 22 April 2022. The album was announced on 8 March 2022 and made available for
pre-order
A pre-order is an order placed for an item that has not yet been released. The idea for pre-orders came because people found it hard to get popular items in stores because of their popularity. Companies then had the idea to allow customers to r ...
on 22 March.
It marked the first studio release where all band members are playing together live since the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. As with previous releases, the album features music of numerous
genres
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
, including
psychedelia
Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic ...
,
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
,
heavy metal and
synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...
, as well as the band's first experiments with
hip hop. It received generally positive reviews, although critics were divided on its length and consistency.
Background and recording
During the production of ''
Fishing for Fishies
''Fishing for Fishies'' is the fourteenth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. It was released on 26 April 2019 by Flightless and ATO Records. The announcement of the album was accompanied by the re ...
'', the band recorded at a house owned by members of
Tropical Fuck Storm
Tropical Fuck Storm are an Australian rock band from Melbourne, Victoria, formed by Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin from The Drones. Lauren Hammel, from the band High Tension, plays drums, and Erica Dunn, from the bands Mod Con, Harmony, an ...
. The two bands together recorded a jam session informally titled "Hat Jam" (named after the hats worn by the various members of the bands during the session) - footage of which appeared in the ''How to Gut a Fishie'' behind-the-scenes documentary uploaded on 21 April 2019. Elements of the "Hat Jam" were taken by both bands, with King Gizzard incorporating elements of the jam into ''Omnium Gatherum''
's first single "
The Dripping Tap" while Tropical Fuck Storm incorporated elements into their joint EP with King Gizzard, ''Satanic Slumber Party''. A limited-edition vinyl, titled ''Hat Jam'', was also released featuring both "The Dripping Tap" and ''Satanic Slumber Party''.
On 29 May 2021, a teaser for the album ''
Butterfly 3000
''Butterfly 3000'' is the eighteenth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, released on 11 June 2021. It is the band's first album not released on Flightless Records, instead being released on the ban ...
'' was included by the band on a video for their live album ''Live in Sydney '21''. It contained a 15-second snippet that was believed to be a clip from the record. However, the music in the clip did not end up appearing anywhere on the record, and instead was an extract of the then unreleased ''Omnium Gatherum'' track "Magenta Mountain". That same day ''Live in Sydney '21'' was released through the band's bootleg program, the 7th live recording in the program, and the 9th album overall.
On 10 August, the band announced via Twitter that they had finished their next album, and included emojis of a diamond and a pickaxe. Then, on 15 August, the band tweeted 2 more emojis; a drop of water and a faucet filling a glass, leading to speculation that these emojis were related to a future album.
On 30 October, the band played an unreleased track from an unspecified album at Melbourne's "Play On Victoria" event at the
Sidney Myer Music Bowl
The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor bandshell performance venue in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the lawns and gardens of Kings Domain on Linlithgow Avenue close to the Arts Centre and the Southbank entertainment precinct ...
. The next day, the band released the lyrics to the song, "Gaia", via a screenshot posted to twitter.
In January 2022, the tweets with emojis resumed, and the account began to like tweets that were able to discern the song titles. During this batch of emoji tweets, the King Gizzard Twitter liked a tweet asking the band to like if a double album is coming, leading many to presume that ''Omnium Gatherum'' will be a double album.
In February, the band announced a three-hour marathon set in Melbourne, naming the one-off show as ''Return Of The Curse Of Timeland'', set to take place on March 5. During the show, the band played four songs from the record: "Magenta Mountain", "The Garden Goblin", "The Dripping Tap" and "Gaia".
The album is the first studio recording since the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
began where the band played together in the studio; ''
K.G.'', ''
L.W.'', and ''
Butterfly 3000
''Butterfly 3000'' is the eighteenth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, released on 11 June 2021. It is the band's first album not released on Flightless Records, instead being released on the ban ...
'' were recorded remotely during lockdown.
The album's
rap
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
songs were the result of Mackenzie learning
sampling using numerous vinyl records he had purchased on
Discogs
Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...
, with Kenny-Smith then
rapping
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
over them. ''The Guardian'' described the experiments as a "rare contentious issue within the group".
Release
The album was announced on 8 March 2022, and the band released the eighteen-minute song "The Dripping Tap"—their longest studio recording to date and the first song since 2019's ''
Fishing for Fishies
''Fishing for Fishies'' is the fourteenth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. It was released on 26 April 2019 by Flightless and ATO Records. The announcement of the album was accompanied by the re ...
'' featuring performances recorded by all six current members on the same day. In the announcement, bandleader Stu Mackenzie hinted that ''Omnium Gatherum'' would be the band's longest studio album so far and represents "a turning point" in their career as it is "going to change the way we write and record music — at least for a while", adding that the band is "entering into our 'jammy period'".
The album's second single, "Magenta Mountain", was released on 29 March, and was accompanied with a video for a live version of the song, recorded on 5 March at the ''Return of the Curse of Timeland'' show. A third single, "Kepler-22b", was released on 19 April, also accompanied by a music video.
Composition
''Omnium Gatherum'' is an album that sees the band hopping between numerous different genres, including
psychedelia
Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic ...
,
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
,
heavy metal,
synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...
,
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fol ...
,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
,
R&B, and
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
.
"The Dripping Tap" is a
prog
Prog may refer to:
Music
* Progressive music
** Progressive music (disambiguation)
** Progressive rock, a subgenre of rock music also known as “prog”
*** Progressive rock (radio format)
* Prog (magazine), a magazine dedicated to progressive ...
-
jam
Jam is a type of fruit preserve.
Jam or Jammed may also refer to:
Other common meanings
* A firearm malfunction
* Block signals
** Radio jamming
** Radar jamming and deception
** Mobile phone jammer
** Echolocation jamming
Arts and entertai ...
that zigzags between
krautrock
Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
,
thrash metal
Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...
,
stoned soul,
neo soul
Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul) is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from soul and contempo ...
,
acid rock
Acid rock is a loosely defined type of rock music that evolved out of the mid-1960s garage punk movement and helped launch the psychedelic subculture. Named after lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), the style is generally defined by heavy, di ...
, and
noise music
Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise within a musical context. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical ...
.
"Magenta Mountain" and "Kepler-22b" are
dream pop
Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...
,
neo-psychedelia
Neo-psychedelia is a diverse genre of psychedelic music that draws inspiration from the sounds of 1960s psychedelia, either updating or copying the approaches from that era. Originating in the 1970s, it has occasionally seen mainstream pop su ...
, and
psychedelic pop
Psychedelic pop (or acid pop) is pop music that contains musical characteristics associated with psychedelic music. Developing in the late 1960s, elements included " trippy" features such as fuzz guitars, tape manipulation, backwards recording, ...
songs reminiscent of the band's 2021 album ''
Butterfly 3000
''Butterfly 3000'' is the eighteenth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, released on 11 June 2021. It is the band's first album not released on Flightless Records, instead being released on the ban ...
'' (with the former featuring a lyrical callback to "Blue Morpho" from ''Butterfly 3000'') that feature "shuffling beats under wonderful harmonies", with the former including
electronic pop
Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...
and the latter incorporating
astral-jazz.
"Gaia" and "Predator X" are both heavy metal and
heavy psych
''Heavy Psych'' is the fifth studio album by stoner rock band Nebula. It was released in 2009 via Tee Pee Records. Promo copies were released to coincide with a tour that began on August 12, 2008. The album was reissued in 2022 by the band's c ...
songs following up on the sound of the 2019 album ''
Infest the Rats' Nest
''Infest the Rats' Nest'' is the fifteenth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. It was released on 16 August 2019 by the band's record label, Flightless, and ATO Records. The album sees the band u ...
'' (with the latter track featuring the inclusion of a callback to the track "Perihelion"), with the former incorporating
thrash metal
Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...
,
psychedelic metal, and psych-prog.
"Ambergris" is a
jazz-funk
Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat (groove), electrified sounds, and an early prevalence of analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creatio ...
and
lounge
Lounge may refer to:
Architecture
* Lounge, the living room of a dwelling
* Lounge, a public waiting area in a hotel's lobby
* Lounge, a style of commercial alcohol- bar
* Airport lounge, or train lounge (e.g., AMTRAK's Acela Lounge), a premium ...
-
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
track, while "Candles" drifts into late 90s
chillout
Chill-out (shortened as chill; also typeset as chillout or chill out) is a loosely defined form of popular music characterized by slow tempos and relaxed moods. The definition of "chill-out music" has evolved throughout the decades, and generally ...
.
"Sadie Sorceress" and "The Grim Reaper" introduce
rap
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
elements to the King Gizzard sound, with the latter incorporating
microtonality
Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of tw ...
and psychedelia.
"The Garden Goblin" is a
twee lo-fi
Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...
bedroom
A bedroom or bedchamber is a room situated within a residential or accommodation unit characterised by its usage for sleeping and sexual activity. A typical western bedroom contains as bedroom furniture one or two beds (ranging from a crib for ...
-
prog
Prog may refer to:
Music
* Progressive music
** Progressive music (disambiguation)
** Progressive rock, a subgenre of rock music also known as “prog”
*** Progressive rock (radio format)
* Prog (magazine), a magazine dedicated to progressive ...
and psych-pop song and "Evilest Man" features political
acid rock
Acid rock is a loosely defined type of rock music that evolved out of the mid-1960s garage punk movement and helped launch the psychedelic subculture. Named after lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), the style is generally defined by heavy, di ...
and callbacks to the track "Cyboogie" from the 2019 album ''
Fishing for Fishies
''Fishing for Fishies'' is the fourteenth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. It was released on 26 April 2019 by Flightless and ATO Records. The announcement of the album was accompanied by the re ...
''.
Lounge-influenced closer "The Funeral" has
middle eastern
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (European ...
guitar flourishes and an
ethereal
Ethereal may refer to:
*Ethereal (horse), a horse that won Australia's Caulfield Cup as well as Melbourne Cup in 2001
*Ethereal wave, or simply ethereal, a subgenre of dark wave music
*Wireshark, formerly named Ethereal, a free and open-source pack ...
ending.
The final few seconds of "The Funeral" consists of a steady ticking at 60 BPM - the same tempo as the consistent "ticking clock" motif present throughout the band's prior album ''
Made in Timeland
''Made in Timeland'' is the nineteenth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, released on 5 March 2022 on Flightless, KGLW and ATO. Produced by Stu Mackenzie, the album consists of two fifteen-minute lo ...
''.
Critical reception
''Omnium Gatherum'' received a score of 72 out of 100 from media aggregate site
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
based on seven critical reviews.
''
Clash'' writer Sam Walker-Smart called ''Omnium Gatherum'' "a phenomenal entry-point to 'the Gizzverse'" and "an all-killer no-filler release that may just stand as the best thing King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have ever released."
Nathan Whittle, writing for ''
Louder Than War
''Louder Than War'' is a music and culture website and magazine focusing on mainly alternative arts news, reviews, and features. The site is an editorially independent publication that was started by journalist John Robb in 2010 and is now ru ...
'', called the album "the distillation of everything that the band are great at and, as always, done purely on their own terms" and "proof that the band are enjoying a newfound freedom of being unshackled from their own self-imposed limitations to work albums through individual styles". Alfie Verity of ''
Gigwise
''Gigwise'' is a British online music news site that features music news, photos, album reviews, music festivals, concert tickets and video content. Founded in June 2001, the site is based in London, England.
History
Gigwise was launched in 2001 ...
'' was complimentary towards' the band's continued experimentation 20 albums in, but said that the album "lacks a definitive thread" and "the shine wears off at points."
''
Loud and Quiet
''Loud and Quiet'' is a British bi-monthly music magazine that focuses on new music from underground indie, alternative, electronic and hip hop artists.
History and profile
The magazine was founded in January 2005 by Stuart Stubbs as a home-print ...
''s Jack Doherty criticized the album's disparate styles, claiming that it "crumbles under its inability to surprise, leaving us with the sound of a band with nowhere left to go."
Jordan Blum of ''
Consequence
Consequence may refer to:
* Logical consequence, also known as a ''consequence relation'', or ''entailment''
* In operant conditioning, a result of some behavior
* Consequentialism, a theory in philosophy in which the morality of an act is determi ...
'' called the album "expansive, assorted, and at least a little self-indulgent, but that's precisely what makes it brilliant."
''
Under the Radar'' contributor Kyle Kersey wrote "Taken as a complete album experience, it's a little too all over the place to measure up to their most focused work, and its robust length is pretty intimidating. But as a smorgasbord of strange sonic shape-shifting, it's a pretty fun listen."
Track listing
Vinyl releases have track 1 on Side A, tracks 2–6 on Side B, tracks 7–11 on Side C, 12–16 on Side D.
*
"Kepler-22b" contains samples from "Yemaya One" written and recorded by
Barney McAll
Barney McAll (born Melbourne, Australia, 1966) is a jazz pianist and composer who lives in Melbourne, Australia. McAll joined Gary Bartz's band in 1997, and has also played with the Josh Roseman Unit, Fred Wesley and the JB's, Groove Collective, ...
.
*
"Sadie Sorceress" contains samples from "
I'm Coming Home" written by
Les Reed and
Barry Mason
John Barry Mason (12 July 1935 – 16 April 2021) was an English singer and songwriter. A leading songwriter of the 1960s, he wrote the bulk of his most successful songs in partnership with Les Reed. Mason gained many gold and platinum awar ...
.
*
"The Grim Reaper" contains samples from "In the Orient" written and recorded by Heinz Funk.
Personnel
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
* Ambrose Kenny-Smith – vocals , organ , percussion , Wurlitzer , harmonica , synthesiser , saxophone , Mellotron , guitar , vibraphone
* Michael Cavanagh – drums , percussion
*
Cook Craig
Nicholas Roderick "Cook" Craig is an Australian musician, singer and songwriter and is a part of groups King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and the Murlocs. Craig releases music under the name Pipe-Eye.
Pipe-Eye's debut EP ''Cosmic Blip'' was re ...
– guitar , vocals , synthesiser , keyboards , bass , turntable , Mellotron , percussion , Wurlitzer
* Joey Walker – guitar , vocals , percussion , synthesiser , bass , turntable , Mellotron , bağlama , flute
* Lucas Harwood – bass
*
Stu Mackenzie
Stuart Douglas Mackenzie is an Australian musician best known as the frontman of psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.
Early life
Mackenzie grew up and went to school in Geelong. His father played guitar to him and his brother ...
– vocals , guitar , bass , organ , piano , percussion , synthesiser , keyboards , Mellotron , Clavinet , turntable , flute , vibraphone , Wurlitzer , vocoder
Additional musicians
* Millicent Smith – vocals
*
Amy Findlay – drums
* Madeline Wright – party sounds
Production
* Stu Mackenzie – production , mixing , recording
* Michael Cavanagh – recording
* Cook Craig – production , recording
* Joey Walker – production , recording , mixing
* Ambrose Kenny-Smith – recording
* Joseph Carra – mastering
* Jason Galea – artwork
Charts
References
{{King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, state=uncollapsed
2022 albums
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard albums
Progressive folk albums
Heavy metal albums by Australian artists
Progressive rock albums by Australian artists
Psychedelic rock albums by Australian artists
Neo-psychedelia albums