The time left by the pulse
Rogue Wave is the first song released from King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s new album, Entropy. It occupies fourth place in the eight-track sequence announced for December 4. That gives listeners a particular entrance: a piece near the middle of a record that opens with Aeon. Its place in the album also sits between Heaven & Hell and Hard Sync before it, and Angel after it. The first encounter with a release need not coincide with the beginning of its running order.[1]
Stu Mackenzie describes the two albums through specific parameters. Alien Metal’s tracks are at 143 beats per minute in F sharp; Entropy’s are at 160 beats per minute in A. The band’s Eurorack explorations supply a shared context for electronic sound production, while pulse rate and tonal centre both change. The musician’s description offers a useful starting point for approaching the new album: it names a tempo and a key. In electronic music, each parameter makes its own contribution to how a piece is organised.[1]
A faster pulse leaves less time for a phrase containing an equal number of beats. I read that as an opportunity for compression on Entropy: a melodic movement of the same scale can occupy a narrower interval. An arrangement could instead lengthen the phrase or thin the accompaniment, changing the density associated with the faster tempo. Mackenzie’s numbers make phrase length a useful listening question for each piece. The choice of key sits alongside that question: A is the centre the band has announced for this album.[1]
The album’s point of closure
The making of the album also involved a separation. The band initially intended to release Entropy and Alien Metal together. Mackenzie says difficulties recording Alien Metal helped Entropy develop into a project that could stand independently and needed more time. A simultaneous pair became two successive releases. Compositionally, I read that decision as room for a shared exploration to find a different flow in each album. The release interval removes the requirement to present the results of the instrumental search in a single package.[1]
The track list is the most concrete outline of that independent flow. Aeon leads to Heaven & Hell and Hard Sync, with Rogue Wave closing the first half. Angel, To Mercury… and Face of the Earth follow. Entropy names both the album and its final piece. That positioning makes the title track a place from which to reconsider the preceding sequence. The title piece could have opened the album; the announced order instead carries the name into its ending.[1]
The distance from the first released song to the album’s ending establishes the formal question for the listener. Rogue Wave supplies an entrance, while Entropy carries the closing position. The announced tempo and key identify shared material within that whole; the running order distributes it across individual pieces. I find the beginning and point of closure within one album as useful as the speed difference between the two. The named works and their positions return that question to the start of each track.[1]