King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Sketches of Brunswick East (From the Vault)
hey folks, welcome to some discography reviews. i’ve been writing music reviews for some friends in a discord server for a few years now in various forms, but i figured i’d like to get them all in a more centralized space, so here we are! this first series of reviews is a review of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s discography, starting in 2011 with Willoughby’s Beach and running right into 2021 with Butterfly 3000. this review was originally written in August 2021.
next up is Sketches of Brunswick East, the third album of 2017 and a collab with Mild High Club –
i like the intro sketch – its got a nice, dreamy, air quality to it that has that little twist as the song transitions into Countdown, and it pretty immediately feels the Mild High Club influence. i’m not too familiar with their work beyond a couple tracks, but Countdown’s EXTREMELY mellow musically, which is neat, but goddamn they’re pairing it with some… unpleasant images – plus the strong connection (what with the name drop) to D-Day, which flips the formula and has a fairly innocuous vocal track of a countdown (ha!), mixed with some more challenging musical accompaniment… it’s an interesting pairing and start to the album for sure. I first heard Tezeta detached from both this and less directly connected to Murder of the Universe, but a friend pointed out that the Han-Tyumi voice here could be him post-muder, a god or spirit looking down and remembering, which has a much nicer vibe than the infinite cycle of suffering implied by the MOTU record itself. Cranes, Planes, Migraines has some real cool drum and bass, and i like a lot of the sound effect mixed in. neat. The Spider and Me is nice enough but honestly not really my style. Second Sketches plays interestingly on the vibes from the first but also aint really my style. Dusk to Dawn On Lygon Street is a really pleasant listen. The Book slaps hard as fuck. God this song is so goddamn good. hey y’all think han-tyumi is the god of The Book? i bet he is. Journey to (S)Hell has some really neat sounds in it but, and stop me if this sounds familiar, but it kept sliding off me. Rolling Stoned does some really cool stuff, warping the really chill beat and playing around with the sound as it twists around – i dug this one. it’s also really interesting to see where the Mild High Club sound is so strong, like on this track, and where it’s more of an influence on the way KGLW does stuff. lyrically, musically, You Can Be Your Silhouette was the sleeper hit for me. always made me really happy as it came around at the end of the album. this one’s really good. yeah the closing sketch is pretty chill too, and with the little dip into silence and the way the album begins so close to silent makes it loop nice too. seems like they’re always thinking about that.
faves – Tezeta, The Book, You Can Be Your Silhouette
dislikes –
man. I’m so at a loss for this one. this was an incredibly pleasant listen. this makes for excellent background music. the instrumentation is strange, and otherworldly, but familiar at the same time – the lyrics are like being in a dream. but at the same time like. i dunno. very little of the album leapt out at me, demanded my attention, forced me to confront it or consider it and so i just kinda vibed the whole time. nice shit.
Sketches of Brunswick East – 5/10
album number four in this string is Polygondwanaland!
support the band by buying this record on Bandcamp
first: Willoughby’s Beach | previous: Murder of the Universe | next: Polygondwanaland
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