page_title: King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
section_title: Five albums in one year (2017)
hierarchical_section_title: King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard / History / Five albums in one year (2017)
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover art for Polygondwanaland by King Gizzard &amp; the Lizard Wizard, created by Jason Galea. It is in the public domain by the band's own admission, free to use.
context_page_description: King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are an Australian rock band formed in 2010 in Melbourne, Victoria. The band consists of Stu Mackenzie, Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Cook Craig, Joey Walker, Lucas Harwood, and Michael Cavanagh. They are known for exploring many different genres, staging energetic live shows and building a prolific discography, having released fifteen studio albums, two EPs and four live albums since the band's formation.
  Their second EP, Willoughby's Beach, and debut album, 12 Bar Bruise, primarily blended surf music and garage rock, and were released on Flightless, the band's own independent record label. Their second album, a "psychedelic western audiobook" titled Eyes Like the Sky, features narration by Broderick Smith. Float Along – Fill Your Lungs, released later in the year, and the 2014 albums Oddments and I'm in Your Mind Fuzz, saw the band expand on their psychedelic sound. In 2015, they drew on elements of jazz fusion and progressive rock with Quarters!, and also released the folk-inspired Paper Mâché Dream Balloon, recorded almost entirely using acoustic instruments.
context_section_description: The band's ninth full-length album, Flying Microtonal Banana, was recorded in the band's own studio and released on 24 February 2017. Originally conceived as a record to be played on the Turkish baglama (a stringed instrument with movable frets), Flying Microtonal Banana has been described as "a soaring take on microtonal music". Three tracks were issued in advance: "Rattlesnake," the opening track, in October 2016; "Nuclear Fusion" in December 2016; and "Sleep Drifter" in January 2017. The band released a music video for "Rattlesnake", directed by Jason Galea, a video which Happy Mag 's Luke Saunders described as "a masterclass in hypnotism."
  Another full-length album, Murder of the Universe, was released on 23 June 2017. Described by the band as a "concept album to end all concepts", it is divided into 3 chapters: The Tale of the Altered Beast; The Lord of Lightning vs Balrog; released 30 May 2017; and Han-Tyumi and the Murder of the Universe released 11 April 2017. SPILL magazine explained that the album "describes the impeding doom of the world in a dark fantasy genre kind of way." It is narrated by Leah Senior for the first two chapters, and a text-to-speech program for the final chapter. The band made their international television debut on 17 April 2017 performing "The Lord of Lightning" on Conan on TBS in the United States.
  King Gizzard's next full-length album, Sketches of Brunswick East, a collaboration with Alex Brettin's psychedelic jazz project Mild High Club, was released on 18 August 2017. Taking inspiration from Miles Davis' 1960 album Sketches of Spain, as well as the band's base recording location of Brunswick East in Melbourne, it is a jazz-improvisational album. Mackenzie described the record as "perhaps representing greater changes that are happening in the wider world, and (this is) our attempt to find beauty within a place that we spend so much time", referring to the constant changes in their neighbourhood.
  King Gizzard's twelfth studio album, Polygondwanaland, was released as a free download on 17 November 2017. The band encouraged fans and independent record labels to create their own pressings of the album, stating that "Polygondwanaland is FREE. Free as in, free. Free to download and if you wish, free to make copies. Make tapes, make CD's, make records . . . Ever wanted to start your own record label? GO for it! Employ your mates, press wax, pack boxes. We do not own this record. You do. Go forth, share, enjoy." The album was promoted with the release of the first track, "Crumbling Castle", on 18 October 2017. The track received better reviews than their preceding releases of the year, with The Needle Drop describing it as "one of the most epic, multi-faceted, and mystical tracks the band has delivered thus far." A music video created by Jason Galea accompanied its release on YouTube. As of April 2018, 159 different versions of the album have been released by independent labels around the world, and it has been called "the ultimate vinyl release".
  Mackenzie confirmed in early December that the fifth and final album of 2017 would be coming "very, very late in the year". Two singles were digitally released less than a week later: "All Is Known", which had previously been performed live; and "Beginner's Luck", an entirely new song. These singles were followed by two more, "The Last Oasis" and "Greenhouse Heat Death", both released on the 20th. On 30 December, the band posted on Facebook that Gumboot Soup, their fifth and final album of the year, would be released the following day. Mackenzie explained in an interview that the songs on Gumboot Soup are "definitely not B-sides or anything. They're more songs that didn't work in any of the rest of the four records, or they didn't fit into any of those categories that well, or they came together slightly after when those records came together."
  In December, Consequence of Sound named King Gizzard Band of the Year, praising both the quantity and quality of their 2017 releases.
caption: Polygondwanaland, the fourth of the band's five 2017 albums, was released into the public domain, inspiring many independent labels throughout the world to issue unique versions of it.
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