- The eye-watering release schedule of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard continues with their second full-length release this year, apparently to be followed by another three records before we say goodbye to 2017.

Late February saw the release of their last album, the Middle-Eastern-inspired journey Microtonal Flying Banana, surely the first time we’ve seen a record influenced by Turkish psychedelia reach number two in the charts.

The momentum continues on their new twenty-one-track epic Murder Of The Universe, divided into three parts which tells a cosmic tale of apocalyptic destruction through the eyes of cyborgs, fearsome deities and bile-spewing demons. Of course one could interpret this album as a parable for the ever-increasing sense of dread we feel as we ponder the future of our humble blue-green planet. However, it’s just as enjoyable as an escapist psych soundtrack to an imaginary trashy cult sci-fi movie; and, most importantly, it’s another immensely entertaining King Gizz record.

Musically, we see a partial return to the heavier freakouts of past triumphs such as Nonagon Infinity and I’m In Your Mind Fuzz. More bizarrely, the record features trippy spoken word narration from folk singer Leah Senior and the robotic title character of the record’s third part Han-Tyumi and the Murder of the Universe. This latter song suite condenses six tracks into a thirteen-minute epic recently illustrated with reliably wigged-out visuals. So while your spoken word intonations give a slightly preposterous early ‘70's vibe that equal parts hypnotise and aggravate, the music is as melt-down appealing as ever.

As laborious as a twenty-one-song record divided into three narrative sections could potentially be, the whole shebang is still bashed out in an efficient forty-six minutes. In addition, those naggingly catchy riffs and sing-song melodies are as plentiful as ever in the garage rock belter Altered Beast I, while Lord Of Lightning does the same but in a more expansive framework that also takes in gurgling Moogs and howling blues harp.

The narrative structure of the record results in some more atmospheric musical passages as well – the throat chanting swirls of The Floating Fire and The Acrid Corpse and the wobbly information-film synthetics of Welcome To An Altered Future, for example; but it’s the scuzzy acid punk of full-throttle King Gizz that still resonates the most in the likes of Digital Black and the Hawkwind-flavoured The Balrog. Ultimately, this is a record that despite (or maybe because of) it’s undeniable eccentricities, makes for an unfiltered glimpse into the ever-expanding Gizzverse.

- Matt Thrower.