With the end of the year fast approaching, it’s time to look back and reflect on what was an incredible year of Australian music with our own small acknowledgment of the artists and releases that made our 2016.

Throughout the week, we’ll be announcing the winners of our Tone Deaf awards over the following categories:

Today, we’re happy to present our award for Act of the Year.

ACT OF THE YEAR: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

“2016 will go down as the year that King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard became an industry unto themselves.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are a name that almost every Aussie music fan is familiar with now, and with good reason, too. For a band that’s only been around six years, they’ve already released eight albums and two EPs, with another five albums set to be released next year.

Hell, if you needed any more proof about how prolific they are, by comparison, bands like Tool have been around for almost 30 years and have only done four albums, but it’s probably cheeky to say that.

Over the last year though, we’ve seen the group release their most recent album, the endlessly-looping Nonagon Infnity, and we’ve seen the boys sell out almost every date on their national and international tours to support the album.

We managed to witness the return of Gizzfest, the band’s touring mini-festival, which has now risen into a full-blown festival destination, and we’ve also seen the sprawling group absolutely dominate the European music scene, where they’re greeted by thousands of screaming fans on each visit.

Undoubtedly, King Gizz are proving themselves to be not only one of the most prolific, unstoppable, and downright amazing groups that are doing the rounds in at the moment, but we can also be pretty bloody proud of the fact that the guys are Australian. We’ve already got an amazing music scene in Australia, but King Gizzard’s presence and contribution to the scene is turning it into one of the best in the world.

All in all, we’re pretty lucky to have a band like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard in this country, and they deserve all the praise they get.” – Tyler Jenke

Shortlist:

  • King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
  • Camp Cope
  • Flume
  • Violent Soho
  • Dune Rats
  • A.B. Original
  • Illy
  • Tash Sultana

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