''Quarters!'' is the sixth studio album by Australian

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

band

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are an Australian rock band formed in 2010 in Melbourne, Victoria. The band's current lineup consists of Stu Mackenzie, Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Cook Craig, Joey Walker, Lucas Harwood and Michael Cavanagh. They ar ...

. It was released on 1 May 2015 on Heavenly Records, peaking at No. 99 on the

ARIA Charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offic ...

. The album was nominated for Best Jazz Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2015, losing to

Barney McAll Barney McAll (born Melbourne, Australia, 1966) is a jazz pianist and composer who lives in Melbourne, Australia. McAll joined Gary Bartz's band in 1997, and has also played with the Josh Roseman Unit, Fred Wesley and the JB's, Groove Collective ...

for '' Mooroolbark''.

Background

The album features four songs, each running for ten minutes and ten seconds making each song a quarter of the album - hence the title. Drawing upon jazz-fusion and psychedelic rock, the album's more laid-back sound was described as "unlike anything they’ve released before" and as "an album more likely to get your head bobbing and hips shaking as opposed to losing footwear in a violent mosh". Stu Mackenzie described how the composition of the album came around in an interview in 2015:

"I wanted to make a record where I didn’t have to yell, as well as exploring some longer, repetitive song structures.” Four tracks, four quarters, each one precisely 10:10 minutes long, each one an extended jam teeming with melodies, the occasional trickle of water, space funk, laughter like
Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics an ...
and deliciously unfussy grooves. I also didn’t want to use any brutal guitar pedals or sing through blown-out guitar amps as I usually would."

Reception

Upon its release, ''Quarters!'' received generally positive reviews by music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 68, based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable". Writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'', Everett True claimed during the album that "King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard unravel mysteries, perform magic, tease melodies out of intricately formed musical patterns and do it all with a face that would be straight except it’s taken too many mind-altering substances."

Music

The album consists of four

psychedelic pop Psychedelic pop (or acid pop) is pop music that contains musical characteristics associated with psychedelic music. Developing in the late 1960s, elements included "trippy" features such as fuzz guitars, tape manipulation, backwards recording, ...

songs, all running exactly ten minutes and ten seconds. "The River" is a

Traffic Traffic comprises pedestrians, vehicles, ridden or herded animals, trains, and other conveyances that use public ways (roads) for travel and transportation. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffi ...

-style

jazz-rock Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyb ...

song with Santana-esque congas. Tim Sendra of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

described the album as a "jazz- prog epic." Mike Katzif of NPR described the album's music as "jazz-inflected prog rock."

Track listing

Vinyl releases have tracks 1–2 on Side A, and tracks 3–4 on Side B.

Personnel

Credits for ''Quarters!'' adapted from liner notes.Track listing and credits as per liner notes for ''Quarters!'' album King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard *Michael Cavanagh – drums, conga *

Cook Craig Nicholas Roderick "Cook" Craig is an Australian musician, singer and songwriter and is a part of groups King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and the Murlocs. Craig releases music under the name Pipe-Eye. Pipe-Eye's debut EP ''Cosmic Blip'' was r ...

– guitar *Ambrose Kenny-Smith – harmonica, vocals *

Stu Mackenzie Stuart Douglas Mackenzie is an Australian musician best known as the frontman of psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. Early life Mackenzie grew up and went to school in Geelong. His father played guitar to him and his brother ...

– vocals, guitar *Eric Moore – drums, percussion *Lucas Skinner – bass *Joey Walker – guitar, bass Production *Stu Mackenzie – recording (track 2), additional recording, mixing *Wayne Gordon – recording (tracks 1, 3, 4) *Joe Carra – mastering *Jason Galea – cover, layout, photo

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2015 albums King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard albums ATO Records albums Flightless (record label) albums Psychedelic pop albums Progressive rock albums by Australian artists Jazz fusion albums by Australian artists