Style: Progressive rock, psychedelic rock (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, The Mars Volta, King Crimson
Country: Italy
Release date: 14 November 2025

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Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but how far that sincerity gets you depends heavily on the quality of the imitation. Ever since King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard cornered the market on eclectic psychedelic rock with global traditional influences, psychedelic bands have swarmed out of the woodwork to do their best at riding those coattails with their own brand of brain-bending zaniness. The world could do with a bit more fanciful art these days, so I’m not one to complain about the influx of imitators, but it can all begin to run together after a while. Citrus Citrus endeavor in their sophomore outing to create a kaleidoscopic, nonlinear listening experience, a presentation they describe on their Bandcamp page as “an invitation for the listener to get freely lost.” Yet no matter how cleverly it may be described, is their effort really that distinct from the prismatic works of their peers?

Let’s not beat around the bush: Citrus Citrus aren’t subtle in the slightest about their flatterous imitation of King Gizzard. In the Belly of the Eternal Draw is an extremely Nonagon Infinity-coded romp featuring too many keyboard effects and all the obligatory fuzzy guitars, wood block percussion, and incomprehensible lyrics.¹ “Joyous” might not be quite the right word, but the bubbly mood feels appropriate for cavorting around a bonfire in some sort of drug-fueled revel. A light folksy touch complements the vacuous whimsy with influences of traditional music styles from around the world, a lineage that would surely draw comparison to The Chronicles of Father Robin if more people knew who they were. Citrus Citrus likewise carry on the King Gizzard tradition of having too many members playing too many instruments—every member except one plays multiple instruments, and of course the odd one out is the bassist.

Citrus Citrus’s greatest strength is their snappy, whimsical aura that would feel right at home on most of King Gizzard’s output. Tight percussion licks and rhythmically complex guitars lure in the unsuspecting audience to be snared in their catchy embrace. Even on extra-silly tracks like “Sushi Sushi”, whose lyrics include a lot of singing the title repeatedly, the heartfelt positivity is hard to resist as it drags the bewildered listener along by the hand. In between their puzzling vocal outbursts, Citrus Citrus focus heavily on instrumental work, which might be a necessity given the diversity of music-makers at their disposal. The opening three tracks roll along with a bouncy rhythmic enthusiasm that is at least a joy to listen to, even when it inevitably brings to mind music you’ve already heard from other artists.

Starting from “Irace del Capo” with its drone- and percussion-heavy dirge, the energy drops, featuring a slower, more contemplative kind of zaniness instead. Without the upbeat attitude that powered the first three tracks, the remainder produces a sensation more of aimless silliness, a brain-wrinkling private joke among the band members to which the audience is not privy. “Let Me Churn” quickly follows with another disappointing outing, including a painfully repetitive chorus of “Let me churn, churn, churn, churn” which seems to mock the playful chorus from the earlier “Sushi Sushi” with a downtempo litany. Only the closer “Asterione” makes a more successful attempt at this shift to a darker tone. Citrus Citrus imbue the final track with an air of heady mystery that at last matches the steady strangeness which they were targeting all along. Never frantic or overwhelming, “Asterione” fills the airwaves with hazy, fantastical vocals and quavering, otherworldly guitar riffs, building carefully from a slow, quiet start to a final triumphant conclusion.

I’ll let you in on a little secret to King Gizzard’s success: putting out albums so damn fast affords them the luxury of catering to extremely specific and contradicting tastes. For any mortal band (or one without about twenty members), trying to match the full breadth of the Australian kings’ stylistic range is an exercise doomed to failure. Not every listener will love every song, but for a normal band releasing only one album every few years, it’s best if most listeners enjoy most of your songs. Leaning too hard into that kind of unpredictable experimentation carries a real risk of alienating listeners who would otherwise be on board for a deluge of nonsense, but would prefer at least consistent nonsense. In the Belly of the Eternal Draw is undeniably fun and catchy in places, but shows little trace of the transcendent experience promised by its creators.

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Recommended tracks: Eternal Draw, Circular Ruins, Sushi Sushi, Asterione
You may also like: Kosmodome, Himmellegeme, The Chronicles of Father Robin
Final verdict: 5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Instagram

Label: Bronson Recordings

Citrus Citrus is:
– Lorenzo Badin (guitars, setar, sitar, keyboards, duduk)
– Marco Buffetti (drums, keyboards, synthesizers, vibraphone, percussion)
– Enrico Maragno (bass)
– Thomas Powell (vocals, keyboards, synthesizers)
– Luca Zantomio (guitars, saz)
With guests:
– Fabio Ferrante (congas, additional percussion)
– Matt Bordin (flute, “Irace del Capo”)

1. Or all too intelligible in the case of this stanza from “Sushi Sushi”: “Get inside of my belly / You taste so damn good / Why does it feel so good / To eat dead animals?” ↩︎