Throughout its history, which now consists of twenty-eight-or-so albums, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard has tested the sheer audacity of genre gatekeepers. A psychedelic rock outfit by trade, the Australian band has unvirtuously fiddled with microtones, adopted a phishy jam band persona, played thrash metal to indie circles, defied the barriers of pigment to dance to Anatolian rock, and that’s just the TLDR.

And now, they’ve only gone and done it, haven’t they. They’ve only done a bloody EDM album. The sound of Alien Metal has previously been teased, officially by The Silver Cord’s progressive electronic scope, which led to King Giz placing gradual emphasis on electronic instruments, bit by miserable bit, ever since. Last year’s under-the-radar release Mango Sticky Rice – part of the Bootlegger series – was an IDM / Eno-esque ambient album.

There is a benevolence to King Gizzard trying something new, as opposed to the hostility the band may receive whilst trying something new. No dance music aficionado, no matter how ironically poisonous their mind, could deem the band an enemy to the genre, because first and foremost, Stu Mackenzie and friends are just having fun with music, experimenting with something they love.

With that sense of fun, with that sense of love, King Gizzard doesn’t necessarily give any of Alien Metal’s chief genres – psytrance, acid techno, acid house etc. – a new slant. But hey, nobody writes a love letter thinking ‘oh boy, this is sure gonna be innovative’. The most innovative aspect is the sheer hilarity of the modular synth rig – called Nathan – that the band produced the album with. Nathan is a bizarre but beautiful sight, all those wires, and seeing each individual bandmember “play” Nathan all at once is a trip.

Nathan is new, but its mission is to emulate, to cram a Love Inc combination of club cool and alien atmosphere into a DJ mix style that completely cycles – the album could be played nonstop forever! It’s here to retain Blue Planet Corporation’s basses but swap out the miniaturised Mortal Kombat synth overlaps. Sapience cuts these basses in and out, pumps them up to build to drops before introducing several sophisticated leads the stickiness of which increases via thin layers of gain; they’re eventually blown out to the point of sounding like brass instruments.

Pastiche, gentle worship, call it whatever. The grandest pastiche, least gentle moment of worship is Level 5’s impressive riving in ‘90s big beat and acid breaks, like prime, Fat of the Land era Prodigy. Rhythms really take over, burying vocoded voices that occasionally, when applied, take all focus – see Kill for the Steel’s “we don’t wish death upon you” mantra. But an attentive approach to sound perseveres on the title track, even if the vocal “fall asleep under the stars, summer breeze laced with PCP” is cheesily dramatic. These vocals are usually used to marry hippie hallucinogenics and air pollution, the latter reeled in by corporations. The title track explores these themes whilst applying spaced techno with moments of tranquility, finally building to an intense climax with rock cymbals, as if subtly returning to the garage.

But this is, of course, King Gizzard’s first tried-and-true album of this ilk, with no room at the inn for rock and/or roll. Guitars are exchanged for vrooshing trance synths, hedonistically droning house vibes and most dance subgenres one could think of the name of which is prefaced by ‘acid’. Alien Metal is a fun experiment and even better love letter. If you want something more than that, you’re not getting it, but the album is a faithful, respectful nod to all music that runs on electronic vibes.

Best track – Level 5.

Rating – 6.5 out of 10