Photo Credit: Jason Galea

Previously, prolific Australian rock unit King Gizzard & The Lizard shared their plans to unveil a new album, The Silver Cord, on October 27. The collection of new music represents this group’s second full-length release this calendar year, following PetroDragonic Apocalypse or Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation, which dropped in June. The band has shared three singles paired with a visual equalizer to preview the impending set. Listen.

Upon an initial listen, it’s apparent the players have embraced the synth-laden, electric side with their forthcoming assemblage, comprised of “Theia,” “The Silver Cord,” and “Set.” “We come at electronic music from an amateur angle,” offers Stu Mackenzie. “I play the Juno synthesizer like a guitar, I don’t really know how to play it. But I wanted to be at peace with being the rock band pretending to know how to use modular synthesizers. We’re in uncharted waters, we’re further out to sea, but leaning into it, and we got to a spot where we were really happy with what came out.” 

According to the troupe, the idea for the new collection sparked after they acquired an ‘80s Simmons electronic drum kit. “The Simmons kit is really sick, actually,” says Mackenzie. “It has this little ‘electronic’ brain all the drum-pads plug into, and while the sounds it can make are pretty rudimentary, we soon decided we wanted to commit to it as the drum sound for this next record. We set Cavs’ Simmons kit up in the centre of the room, and then dragged every synth we had in the practice space or lying about our houses into the studio, and plugged everything in. It was chaotic. It was probably the coolest our studio has ever looked, to be honest.”

The full album features seven tracks, including the trio of singles released today. According to McKenzie, “The first version’s really condensed, trimming all the fat. And on the second version, that first song, ‘Theia,’ is 20 minutes long. It’s the ‘everything’ version – those seven songs you’ve already heard on the first version, but with a whole lot of other shit we record while making it. It’s for the Gizz-heads. I love Donna Summer’s records with Giorgio Moroder, and I’d never listen to the short versions now – I’m one of those people who wants to hear the whole thing. We’re testing the boundaries of people’s attention spans when it comes to listening to music, perhaps – but I’m heavily interested in destroying such concepts.”

As a preview of what’s to come, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have delivered a single video featuring an assemblage of all three singles: “Theia,” “The Silver Cord,” and “Set.” Listen below. 

Read Relix’s cover story featuring King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard here.

Pre-order The Silver Cord now.