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Jan 31, 2022 Web Exclusive By Ben Jardine

A remix album may seem on-brand for the Melbourne psych-rock outfit, King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard. These are the guys who made open source the files of Polygondwanaland and a handful of their live albums—ready to use and manipulate for anyone with a digital audio workstation. But while Butterfly 3001 (the new reworkings of last year’s syncopated synth odyssey, Butterfly 3000) has arrived, its source material wasn’t always the obvious choice to remix.

“Yes it’s electronic,” explains the band’s guitarist, Joey Walker, in the album’s press release. “But so is a fridge. Have you tried to dance to Butterfly? It’s hard. It ties your shoelaces together. It’s duplicitous in its simplicity. But Butterfly 3001 expands on this. It also deviates and obliterates. We’re honored to have such esteemed people go to work on these songs.”

And esteemed people they’ve enlisted. Just to name a few of the featured guests on Butterfly 3001: The Flaming Lips, DJ Shadow, Peaches, Geneva Jacuzzi, Peaking Lights, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, and DāM-FunK. In keeping with King Gizzard’s artistic patronage, though, Butterfly 3001 offers an opportunity for the band’s devoted fanbase to discover new electronic musicians, and the album features lesser known producers, such as Montreal’s ZANDOLI II and Chicago’s Hieroglyphic Being.

Just as King Gizzard’s immense discography is equal parts exploratory and diverse, so too is Butterfly 3001. Every song on Butterfly 3000 gets its time in the spotlight (although “Blue Morpho” gets remixed five times). Some mixes come out better than others and Walker is right: a lot of the tracks from Butterfly are deceptively complex, and the listener can often hear the trappings of this deception in the producers’ attempts to alter the tracks to make something new and different. Some tracks wobble and topple and threaten to fall over (“Shanghai - Deaton Chris Anthony Remix”), while others more perfectly morph into their remixer’s artistic sensibilities (“Ya Love - Flaming Lips’ Fascinating Haircut Re Do”).

As remix albums go, Butterfly 3001 is certainly far-reaching and expansive. It’s a lengthy adventure, clocking in at just under two hours, but the creativity found in every corner of the record is enough to make one want to revisit this collection over and over again. (www.kinggizzardandthelizardwizard.com)

Author rating: 7/10