Riffs of 2021

1 King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Pleura

Generally speaking, the heavy side of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard tends to dwell more in 70s garage rock worship than anything overly distorted or hellishly metallic. There are occasional exceptions, however, such, which could easily have been penned by the Iron Man himself, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, and sat on early 70s masterpieces such as or . Performed in C# minor, bouncing between the root and minor seventh, it’s the little trills in between that add melodic depth – utilising the second, minor third and perfect fourth intervals to decorate the groove and widen their sonic range. It’s hard to know exactly which pedals in their sizeable collection were used on this track specifically, though firm favourites over the years have included the standard Cry Baby wah and the Devi Ever Torn’s Peaker fuzz – the latter of which singer/guitarist Stu Mackenzie has used “since forever” and describes as “a one-trick pony” thanks to its knobs no longer working (“you just step on it and it squeals”).