King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard “Polygondwanaland” 2017. Shed House Records custom vinyl limited to 25 copies. Australian psych-rockers King Gizzard released Polygondwanaland (their fourth of five releases in 2017!!) by uploading the master tapes to the web for anyone to use with the note “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.“ Shed House (along with other indie labels including Romanus Records and Fuzz Cult Records) immediately announced plans to release the world’s first public domain record in physical format and this beauty is the result. (Romanus plans to produce the world’s second remote-controlled LED vinyl record for the King Gizzard LP for Record Store Day 2018.)

Allmusic says about Polygondwanaland “[It] sounds like a consolidation of everything the band has done up until now, chewed up and spit back put in large and small chunks of psychedelic rock. The first song alone, the ten-minute-long ”Crumbling Castle,“ employs microtonal guitars, layers in synths, sounds like space prog, has laid back jazz interludes and heavy metal breakdowns, and delivers all the trippy punch of their early work. After all the experiments and tricks, it almost sounds like the band is playing it safe, even if the song is a rampaging ball of barely controlled energy. They really aren’t, though. Instead, they are delivering a record that plays to their strengths as songwriters and musicians instead of distracting people with some flashy idea. It’s straight – or as straight as possible – King Gizzard, and at this stage of their career, that’s a welcome development. Hearing them incorporate all the different sonic flourishes they’ve employed in the past in pursuit of good songs and not some higher concept means the album may slip past unnoticed, but it will sound great to anyone not scared off by the lack of theatrics. Tracks like the spookily restrained ”Searching,“ the rampaging ”The Fourth Colour,“ the tribal ”The Castle in the Air,“ or the thrumming title track are the work of a band in full command of their process and results. Their fourth album of 2017 may not be their most exciting of the year, but it is their strongest and shows that King Gizzard don’t need any bells and whistles to make a great psychedelic splash.”