What’s New, Lizard Wizard?

Two contrasting singles have been released by the Melbourne-based psych rock suit, and fans are beginning to speculate what form their next album (or albums) will take.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: part Australian psych-rock band, part phonetic mouthful. These seven talented musicians have become a familiar name in the rock scene not just for their eccentric stage presence, but for their creation of genre-bending albums. Since the 2011 release of their debut EP, Anglesea, the Gizz boys have experimented with sounds ranging from garage rock to jazz to spaghetti western-infused spoken word. They have always found a way to keep their fans guessing, like releasing five studio albums over the course of 2017. But after a much-needed break in 2018, King Gizzard is back with two singles, “Cyboogie” and “Fishing For Fishies.”

Both tracks on their own provide a refreshing sound for the band. “Cyboogie” is heavily synth driven, with fuzzy vocals over the top as if to symbolize the theme for an 80s sci-fi movie. “Fishing For Fishies,” on the other hand, relies on acoustic guitar plucking and the floating harmonica melodies provided by Ambrose Kenny-Smith. Given the plethora of music released in 2017, it is understandable to predict that the two songs may be on different albums. However, with releases like Murder of the Universe and Nonagon Infinity that follow a storyline and theme, King Gizzard’s upcoming LP will follow the same suit, connecting these two songs that are sonically different.

The question is, how does a song about fishing relate to cyborgs? For that, we need to enter “The Gizzverse.” This space is a representation of how all of the band’s albums reside in one universe. Specifically, MOTU and Nonagon have a connection in which the former’s song “The Lord of Lightning” includes similar lyrics from the latter’s “Robot Stop.” It can further be connected that the robot it is referring to is Han-Tyumi, the cyborg introduced in the third section of MOTU. This cyborg is identified by the text-to-speech application “UK, Charles,” which narrates most of the tracks. The automated voice can also be heard in the track “Tezeta” featured on Sketches of Brunswick East, a collaboration with Mild High Club. Now before you get too lost, the cyborg being referenced in “Cyboogie” is present on the artwork for the single “Fishing For Fishies.” Are you with me so far?

In the story “Han-Tyumi and The Murder of the Universe,” the confused cyborg tries to understand its existence by seeking out two human activities: vomiting and dying. The same can be said in the artwork for “Fishing For Fishies,” where the cyborg is doing exactly that. Also in the artwork is the appearance of fire and smoke, surrounding Han-Tyumi and his catch. This is an indication of a planet that is in the midst of destruction. In sci-fi stories like the Terminator series, there is often reference to robots taking over civilization and harming the environment in the process. While a robot uprising is still considered to be out of the question in reality, the actuality of the human race harming the planet is a concern we face today. From the artwork alone, we can identify two themes: semi-artificial intelligence and destruction of nature. But there is even more to dissect in each single’s lyrics.

Nearly half of Cyboogie’s lyrics contain the song name, but in the verses there are connections made between human traits and artificial components. For example, in the second verse the distorted vocals reference Han-Tyumi having a heart, but it is full of cables and knots. Also, the cyborg has the capability of feeling depressed. However, instead of meditating or exercising, the cure can be achieved by debugging and running tests like a computer with a virus. Regardless of its intentions, Han-Tyumi has human-like experiences without interpreting them as good or evil. As the lyrics go, its thought process is sporadic (bouncy ball thoughts) and therefore wouldn’t cling to a set of values.

“Fishing For Fishies” is contradictory to “Cyboogie” in a number of ways. First off, the vocals are much more eloquent and melodic, as if it is a full human presenting the lyrics. The subject expresses a consciousness that recognizes fish as living beings, as well as identifying its own mortality. Even though they are hungry, they decide to let them freely swim. By insinuating that you can make the fish happy, you identify them as conscious animals just like humans. This song is a plea to society to respect animals and their ecosystems, because if we go so far as to hunt them to extinction for our own benefit, we will eventually be the last species on Earth. When Han-Tyumi set out to experience vomiting, his artificial creation rejected him and ended up malfunctioning and engulfing the universe in the gross substance.

And what about the possibility of two separate albums? King Gizzard’s Paper Mâché Dream Balloon is heavily folk-inspired and a song like “Fishing For Fishies” would fit right in. It would also be interesting to see the band produce a fully electronic album, as that is one of the few genres they have yet to experiment with. Unfortunately, after watching the music videos that were released along with the singles, the members of the band are wearing virtually the same outfits, with the exception of frontman Stu Mackenzie looking like a minion from Despicable Me.

If these two singles do end up on the same album, the next question is what track number each will be listed as. If Murder of the Universe and Nonagon Infinity have taught us anything, it’s that their songs are placed in a specific order for a reason.