Fire Track: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – “The Dripping Tap”

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have announced their first-ever double album, Omnium Gatherum, which is coming soon via their own label KGLW (and available for pre-order on March 22nd). Today’s Fire Track is the epic 18-minute lead single, “The Dripping Tap.”

Following 2020’s KG and 2021’s LW and Butterfly 3000, Omnium Gatherum was the first time King Gizzard recorded together as a band since the COVID pandemic hit, and Melbourne placed its citizens under a series of prohibitive lockdown measures. Omnium Gatherum’s sprawling 16 tracks of gonzoid prog jams, dizzying pop nuggets, rubber-legged hip-hop odysseys and passages of pure thrash-metal abandon offer plenty for Gizzard fans and neophytes alike to chew on. Typically, Gizzard albums pursue a single theme or style – for example, Infest The Rat’s Nest’s eco-themed metal barrage, or Butterfly 3000’s new age trance-pop, or Nonagon Infinity’s endless garage-prog contortions – and part of the thrill of Omnium Gatherum for the group was the opportunity of new ideas without committing to deliver an entire album in that vein. It’s the perfect entry point for newcomers, and a solid treat for the faithful as well.

Lead single “The Dripping Tap” is an 18-minute krautrock/garage-psych jam – an ecstatic pile-up of motorik vibes, giddy pop and gleefully gonzo crescendos. It’s unmistakeably Gizzard, with its restless, interlocking riffs and supernatural changes of mood, but it pushes the Lizard Wizard jam archetype a quantum step or three further. The album’s title, Mackenzie says, is “literally Latin for ‘a collection of miscellaneous people or things’” – a fitting sobriquet for Gizzard’s first-ever double album, and their boldest, most ambitious, most far-reaching release yet.

Conceived as a compendium of unreleased songs that had never found a home on previous Gizzard albums, Omnium Gatherum snowballed, and soon the group were writing and recording new songs for the swiftly expanding album. Its tracks were recorded at Gizz HQ, but also at their legendary, since-vacated clubhouse, 253 Lygon Street, or remotely at home. Lyrically, the themes are diverse, though the group’s concern for the ecological well-being of the planet remains a constant. Some tracks return to the synth-psych visions of Butterfly 3000, others revisit the fevered thrash-metal attack Gizzard coined on 2019’s Infest The Rat’s Nest, elsewhere, the group play bold, unexpected wildcards. Goofball prog, colossal rock-outs and enchanting folksong abound.

Stu Mackenzie elaborates: “This recording session felt significant. Significant because it was the first time all six Gizzards had gotten together after an extraordinarily long time in lockdown. Significant because it produced the longest studio recording we’ve ever released. Significant because (I think) it’s going to change the way we write and record music – at least for a while… A turning point. A touchstone. I think we’re entering into our ‘jammy period’. It feels good.”

The result feels like a Greatest Hits album, in its variety and the strength of the songs – only you’ve never heard any of these tracks before. It’s the sound of a group operating at their absolute peak, a group motivated by a deserved confidence that they could try their hands at anything. It’s also the sound of a group ready to return to the road after two fallow years – a handful of live shows in Australia, performed in the brief windows between lockdowns, has reawakened King Gizzard’s taste for live action. To say that they’re “up for it” would be a dizzying exercise in understatement.

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD TOUR DATES
Sat. Mar. 19 – Buenos Aires, AR @ Lollapalooza Argentina
Sun. Mar. 20 – Santiago, CL @ Lollapalooza Chile
Wed. Mar 23 – São Paulo, BR @ Cine Joia
Sat. Mar. 26 – São Paulo, BR @ Lollapalooza Brazil
Sun. Mar. 27 – Bogotá, CO @ Festival Estereo Picnic
Mon. April 11 – San Diego, CA @ Humphreys Concerts by the Bay^
Tue. April 12 – Pomona, CA @ Fox Theater Pomona^
Wed April 13 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Arlington Theatre ~
Fri. April 15 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Sun. April 17 – Las Vegas, NV @ Event Lawn at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas %
Mon. April 18 – Las Vegas, NV @ Event Lawn at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas !
Tues. April 19 – Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre ?
Wed. April 20 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre ?
Fri. April 22 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Sun. April 24 – San Luis Obispo, CA @ Madonna Inn $ SOLD OUT
Tue. April 26 – Sonoma, CA @ Gundlach Bundschu $ SOLD OUT
Wed. April 27 – Petaluma, CA @ Phoenix Theater $ SOLD OUT
Sat. April 30 – Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees Festival
Wed. May 4 – Monterrey, MX @ Showcenter
Fri. May 6 – Mexico City, MX @ Quarry Studios
Sun. May 8 – Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, MX @ Loot/Musa
Sat. May 14 – Queretaro, MX@ Jardin Hercules
Sun. May 15 – Guadalajara, MX @ Teatro Estudio Guanamor
Fri. May 20 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre & SOLD OUT
Sat. May 21 – Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live! Outdoor &
Sun. May 22 – Millvale, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre & SOLD OUT
Tue. May 24 – Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall & SOLD OUT
Wed. May 25 – South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground & SOLD OUT
Thu. May 26 – South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground &SOLD OUT
Sat. May 28 – Boston, MA @ Boston Calling Music Festival
Tue. May 31 – Athens, GR @ Gagarin 205
Wed. June 1 – Athens, GR @ Gagarin 205
Fri. June 3 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound – SOLD OUT
Sun. June 5 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera in the City SOLD OUT
Mon. June 6 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera in the City SOLD OUT
Tue. June 7 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera in the City SOLD OUT
Thu. June 9 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound – SOLD OUT
Sat. June 11 – Mannheim, DE @ Maifeld Derby Festival
Sun June 12 – HIlvarenbeek NL @ Best Kept Secret
Tue. June 14 – Berlin, DE @ Tempodrom
Fri. June 17 – Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
Sat. June 18 – Miami, FL @ Space Park &
Sun. July 31 – Waterford, IE @ All Together Now
Tue. Aug. 2 – Šibenik, HR @ St. Michael’s Fortress
Wed. Aug. 3 – Šibenik, HR @ St. Michael’s Fortress
Fri. Aug. 5 – Prague, CZ @ Archa Theatre
Sun. Aug. 7 – Vienna, AT @ Arena Wien (Open Air)
Tue. Aug. 9 – Leipzig, DE @ Parkbühne
Wed. Aug. 10 – Munich, DE @ Tonhalle
Fri. Aug. 12 – Sion, CH @ Palp Festival
Sun Aug 14- Helsinki, FIN @ Flow Festival
Wed. Aug. 17 – Paredes de Coura, PT @ Paredes de Coura Festival
Fri. Aug. 19 – Gueret, FR @ Check-In Party Festival
Sat. Aug. 20 – Saint-Malo, FR @ La Route du Rock Festival
Tue. Aug. 23 – Cologne, DE @ E-Werk
Wed. Aug. 24 – Hamburg, DE @ Markthalle
Fri Aug 26- London, UK @ All Points East
Sat. Aug. 27 – Málaga, ES @ Canela Party
Sun. Oct. 2 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre *
Tue. Oct. 4 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater* SOLD OUT
Wed. Oct. 5 – Vancouver, BC @ PNE Forum*
Thu. Oct. 6 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre *
Mon. Oc. 10 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre* SOLD OUT
Tue. Oct. 11 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre* SOLD OUT
Fri. Oct. 14 – St Paul, MN @ The Palace Theatre* SOLD OUT
Sat. Oct. 15 – Chicago, IL @ RADIUS* SOLD OUT
Sun. Oct. 16 – Detroit, MI @ Masonic Temple*
Tue. Oct. 18 – Toronto, ON @ History* SOLD OUT
Wed. Oct. 19 – Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia*
Fri. Oct. 21 – New York, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium*
Sat. Oct. 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall* SOLD OUT
Sun. Oct. 23 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem at The Wharf*
Mon. Oct. 24 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit*
Wed. Oct. 26 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern*
Thu. Oct. 27 – New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater *
Mon. Oct. 31 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion #

^ w/ Mildlife
~ w/ Mildlife, DJ Crenshaw
% w/ Amyl and the Sniffers, SPELLLING, DJ Crenshaw
! w/ The Chats, SPELLLING, DJ Crenshaw
$ w/ SPELLLING, DJ Crenshaw
? w/ SPELLLING
& w/ Jess Cornelius
* w/ Leah Senior
# w/ The Murlocs, Leah Senior