King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s 29th album, Entropy, grew out of an electronic experiment that forced the six-piece to rethink how they make music together.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have announced their 29th studio album, Entropy. And while the Melbourne band’s appetite for new music is hardly surprising at this point, the latest record has an unusual creative force behind it: an enormous modular synthesiser setup they’ve named Nathan.
Due on 4 December through the band’s own (p)doom Records, Entropy is the companion to August’s Alien Metal. Both emerged from lengthy sessions with Nathan, a sprawling Eurorack system that has become so integral to the band’s sound they consider it an unofficial seventh member.
It’s an arrangement that sounds distinctly King Gizzard. Six musicians, hundreds of electronic components and an instrument that requires its operators to assemble and connect their own systems.
But Nathan is more than another eccentric addition to the band’s increasingly unpredictable catalogue.
Learning To Play Together, Again
Speaking to Melbourne’s Beat in September, frontman Stu Mackenzie explained that adopting Eurorack modular synthesis had forced the group to reconsider skills developed over approximately 15 years of playing together.
Mackenzie estimated that each member’s rack contained roughly 100 modules. Beyond learning to operate them, the band had to solve practical problems involving synchronisation, signal degradation and getting six separate systems to work together reliably.
The results have been unpredictable, particularly onstage.
In a March interview with SPIN, drummer Michael Cavanagh estimated that the band’s electronic performances involved roughly 70 to 80 per cent improvisation. Depending on the arrangement, he might play acoustic drums, electronic percussion or simply provide a rhythmic foundation for the others.
The band’s enthusiasm for the machinery also owes plenty to guitarist Joey Walker, whose longstanding interest in electronic music helped introduce Mackenzie to modular synthesis.
As Walker explained in comments accompanying the announcement of Alien Metal, electronic music was once his main focus before King Gizzard. He continued making it independently but wanted to deepen his technical understanding.
What followed was a collective effort to understand not just the technology, but the structures and dynamics of dance music.
The instrument eventually acquired its name partly because the challenge of playing it was so intimidating. Mackenzie told Beat that calling it Nathan helped make the machinery feel more approachable, although the band also found the name funny.
One Experiment, Two Very Different Albums
The band’s latest announcement makes the scale of that experiment clearer.
According to The Line of Best Fit, Alien Metal and Entropy emerged from the same extended Eurorack recording sessions. Mackenzie said the group initially hoped to finish and release both albums together, but the demanding process of completing Alien Metal gave the second project more room to develop.
Despite their shared origins, the records follow different musical rules.
Every track on Alien Metal runs at 143 beats per minute in F-sharp, while Entropy moves at 160 beats per minute in A. Mackenzie explained in the album announcement that the second record is faster and places greater emphasis on harmony and melody.
That difference is reflected in ‘Rogue Wave’, the first single from Entropy. The song brings bright er electronic textures and a more dance-oriented approach to the band’s continuing experiments with modular synthesis.
You can listen to ‘Rogue Wave’ below.
For a band whose catalogue includes thrash metal, psychedelic rock, jazz and sprawling progressive experiments, another change in direction isn’t exactly breaking character. What’s different is how completely this latest approach has altered the way the members work together.
And after producing two albums from the same experiment, Nathan appears to have become considerably more than an elaborate piece of touring equipment.
Entropy arrives on 4 December through (p)doom Records.
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