King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard announced their second new album of 2021, Butterfly 3000, will be self-released through their KGLW label on June 11. Although they announced the record in advance of its release at least, they intend to keep all the songs on it secret until it comes out in a month.
They did reveal that it would have 10 tracks that “all began life as arpeggiated loops composed on modular synthesisers, before being fashioned into addictive, optimistic and utterly seductive dream-pop by the six-piece,” according to a press release. They claim it will sound like nothing else they’ve released while still being “unmistakably Gizz,” just branching out their neo-psychedelic sound to something more electronic. The press release also boldly claims that it will “undoubtedly” be “the most accessible and jubilant album of their career.”
Instead of sharing the album artwork, the band decided to just describe it instead. It’s “a cross-eyed autostereogram” designed by their frequent collaborator Jason Galea. Autostereograms attempt to create a 3-D image from a 2-D pattern. Like the name implies, cross-eyed stereograms attempt this by encouraging the viewer to cross their eyes.
Fans can pre-save the album on streaming services here. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have yet to comment on whether there will be a physical release or if it will remain digital-only.
Butterfly 3000 will be the group’s 18th studio album since they formed in 2010. They’ve been remarkably prolific, and 10 of those 18 came out in the last five years. They famously released five albums in 2017 alone, including Flying Microtonal Banana and Polygondwanaland, which are two of their most popular to date.
They “only” released one studio album in 2020, called K.G., but they followed it up in February 2021 with L.W. The pair of albums showed them returning to the Anatolian rock-inspired style that they had dabbled in on Flying Microtonal Banana. While they were unable to tour last year due to the pandemic, they still released several live albums, including Live in S.F. ‘16 and an album called Chunky Shrapnel, which was released with accompanying concert footage as soundtrack to a film of the same name. They hope to tour again in Fall 2021, including some three-hour long shows.
In addition to K.G. and the live albums, they shared some old demos in a compilation called Demos Vol. 1 + Vol. 2 as well as collection called Teenage Gizzard. The ten 2010-2011 recordings on Teenage Gizzard showed their roots as a more surf-punk inspired band.
Photo credit: Sharon Alagna
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