There are some very cool visuals in the video for “Iron Lung.” Watch it now! Some could be scary, so don’t watch it with kids, or do. I don’t really care.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard unveil a new single, “Iron Lung,” from their forthcoming album, Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs Mushrooms And Lava, out this Friday, October 7th via KGLW. In conjunction, they present an epic accompanying video animated by SPOD. This is the first release in a series of THREE new albums, all set for flight during the month of October. Following Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava will be Laminated Denim, dropping on October 12th, and then Changes on October 28th. Today’s “Iron Lung” is a kaleidoscopic blend of jazzy brass, deft percussion, fuzzy vocals, and fiery guitar licks. “‘Iron Lung’ (along with the other songs off this record) is the ultimate collab,” says Stu Mackenzie. “We wrote the lyrics as a group and created the music out of improvisation. Spontaneous creation. The best kind. And that’s why I’m proud of it. Hope you dig.”
The video represents how much life and noise is stuffed into “Iron Lung”’s 9 minutes, as acidic graphics morph and twist together. SPOD elaborates on the video: “When I heard this track I had just started delving into fully animated AI videos and thought what a good opportunity to use something I barely understand mixed with my love of effects from the dawn of digital video. So I poured myself into a cyber spiral for a couple of months and this is the result. I love how the song seems like endless ascending & descending cycles culminating in these dramatic explosions and lifts, so it felt like a perfect fit to dive into a 9 minute descent to hell and back. Unfortunately I still dream that I’m spiraling into the eternal abyss and I’m not sure I exist anymore.”
Additionally, the Marathon Shows that will take place at Red Rocks Amphitheater on October 10th, 11th, and November 2nd will be presented by Nugs.net as a delayed stream shortly after they happen. For more information, as well as tickets to each show or multi-night packages, visit nugs.net/kglwlive.
For Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava, King Gizz cooked up all the music together in the studio, on the spot. “All we had prepared as we walked into the studio were these seven song titles,” says Mackenzie. “I have a list on my phone of hundreds of possible song titles. I’ll never use most of them, but they’re words and phrases I feel could be digested into King Gizzard-world.” Each of the album’s seven titles were selected from said list and assigned a beats-per-minute value to each one. Additionally, each song follows one of the seven modes of the major scale: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian.
Over seven days, the group recorded hours and hours of jams, dedicating a day to each mode and BPM. “We’d walk into the studio, set everything up, get a rough tempo going and just jam. No preconceived ideas at all, no concepts, no songs,” says Mackenzie. “We’d jam for maybe 45 minutes, and then all swap instruments and start again.” The group ended each day with four-to-five hours of new jams in the can. Mackenzie auditioned those jams after the sessions were done, stitching them together into songs. Having assembled full working instrumentals from these jams, Mackenzie and his bandmates began overdubbing flute, organ, percussion and extra guitar over the top. The lyrics, meanwhile, were a group effort. “We had an editable Google Sheet that we were all working on,” says Mackenzie. “Most of the guys in the band wrote a lot of the lyrics, and it was my job to arrange it all and piece it together.”
As a result, Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava, is one of the densest, most unpredictable statements from a band whose work always rockets in from unexpected angles accompanied by a wealth of subtext and theorems.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “ICE V”
TRACKLISTING
1. Mycelium (7:36)
2. Ice V (10:16)
3. Magma (9:07)
4. Lava (6:41)
5. Hell’s Itch (13:28)
6. Iron Lung (9:05)
7. Gliese 710 (7:49)
TOUR DATES
Sun. Oct. 2 – Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre * SOLD OUT
Tue. Oct. 4 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater * SOLD OUT
Wed. Oct. 5 – Vancouver, BC @ PNE Forum *
Thu. Oct. 6 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre * SOLD OUT
Mon. Oct. 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 * SOLD OUT
Fri. Oct. 21 – Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium %
Sat. Oct. 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall * SOLD OUT
Sun. Oct. 23 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem at The Wharf * SOLD OUT
Mon. Oct. 24 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit * SOLD OUT
Wed. Oct. 26 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern * SOLD OUT
Thu. Oct. 27 – New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater *
Fri. Oct. 28 – Austin, TX @ LEVITATION – Stubb’s *
Sat. Oct. 29 – Austin, TX @ LEVITATION – Stubb’s $
Mon. Oct. 31 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion #
Wed. Nov. 2nd – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre #
Sat. Dec. 10 – St. Kilda, AUS @ The Palace Foreshore @
Thu. Dec. 29 – Tauranga, NZ @ Summer Haze – Wharepai Domain
Sat. Dec. 31 – Wãnaka, NZ @ Rhythm & Alps
Wed. Jan. 4 – Auckland, NZ @ Summer Haze – The Matakana Country Park
Fri. Jan. 6 – New Plymouth, NZ @ Bowl of Brooklands
Thu. Mar. 30 – Sydney, AUS @ Big Top Luna Park
Thu. Apr. 6 – Brisbane, AUS @ Tivoli
Fri. Apr. 7 – Byron Bay, AUS @ Byron Bay Bluesfest
* w/ Leah Senior
% w/ black midi, Leah Senior
$ w/ Tropical Fuck Storm, The Murlocs
# w/ The Murlocs, Leah Senior
@ Stella Donnelly, CIVIC
