King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Release New Album 'Flying Microtonal Banana'

Following the frazzled freakbeat of 2016's Nonagon Infinity, the endlessly inventive King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard return in 2017 with new album Flying Microtonal Banana, out today.You can order it HERE. WATCH + SHARE "RATTLESNAKE" VIDEO

Flying Microtonal Banana marks another subtle shift in sound as King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard drive deep into trance-inducing drones, inventive jazz flourishes, non-Western musical scales and metronomic rhythms that motor along like a well-oiled engine. So unique and evolved is the album's sound that it necessitated a total reinvention of the band's instruments after they began experimenting with a custom microtonal guitar made for front man Stu Mackenzie.

Inspired by the movable frets of the Turkish ba?lama, three old guitars and a bass were customized in order to explore a new set of musical notes. A keyboard and mouth organ followed suit, and so Flying Microtonal Banana was born.

Recorded in their own studio Brunswick East in Melbourne, the album also incorporates liberal use of the stirring tones of a Turkish horn called a zurna, as heard on the likes of 'Billabong Valley', the purple smoke-enshrouded, sub-Sabbath 'Doom City' and the moving musical miasma that is the album's utterly transcendental title track. "The zurna's notes are really malleable," says Stu. "It's a bendy, wobbly-sounding instrument, and blends perfectly with the secret notes on the guitar".

King Gizzard is the definition of prolific, having released nine albums since their 2012 debut, with more releases expected in 2017. "Lots of bands can pump out high octane indie rock numbers, but they burn out so fast, and rarely have the sort of inscrutable power that King Gizzard is apparently immune to depleting," explained Under the Radar Magazine.

Returning to the US in March, the band will be making their Coachella debut and performing across the entire US in only three weeks. Known for their explosive live shows, fellow Aussies ORB and Stonefield will be opening. All upcoming dates are listed below.

US TOUR DATES
3/29 - Washington DC - 9:30 Club^#
3/30 - Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero Theatre^#
3/31 - New York, NY - Webster Hall^#
4/2 - Boston, MA - Royale^#
4/3 - Portland, ME - Port City Music Hall^#
4/4 - Montreal, Canada - Fairmount Theatre^#
4/5 - Toronto, Canada - Danforth Theatre^#
4/6 - Detroit, MI - Magic Stick^#
4/7 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom^#
4/8 - Chicago, IL - Metro^#
4/9 - Seattle, WA - Neumos^ SOLD OUT
4/10 - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre^
4/11 - Portland, OR - Revolution Hall^
4/12 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore^
4/14 - Indio, CA - Coachella
4/17 - Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy^ SOLD OUT
4/18 - Las Vegas, NV - The Pool at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas^
4/19 - Phoenix, AZ - The Crescent Ballroom^
4/21 - Indio, CA - Coachella

^ with ORB
# with Stonefield

EUROPEAN TOUR DATES
5/31 - 6/4 - Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound Festival 2017
6/3 - London, UK - Field Day 2017
6/8 - 6/10 - Porto, Portugal - NOS Primavera Sound 2017
6/14 - Manchester, UK - Albert Hall
6/15 - London, UK - O2 Forum Kentish Town
6/16 - 6/18 - Mannheim, Germany - Maifeld Derby 2017

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