King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s vicious psychedelia takes root in the Latitude 2015 woods

Ducking into Henham Park’s forest may provide a brief respite from the sun, but as King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard quickly prove over on the tree-sheltered iArena, there’s no escaping summer frivolity at Latitude.

Harnessing the same beach-bound psychedelia as fellow countrymen Tame Impala, but slammed straight into a tenth gear that sees the first of several crowdsurfers pop up before the first ten minutes is up, they’re all matted hair and clattering percussion just seconds into their mid-afternoon set. The duo of drummers that backs up their noodling keep things impossibly tight, though - there’s a painstakingly focussed musicianship beneath the windmilling of hair, jittery harmonica solos and baggy, surf aesthetic.

Like a monster crawling straight out of the woodland they take to the stage within, the hairy seven-piece’s non-stop thunder of swaggering post-punk and thrashing psych seems almost otherworldly. The mosh-pits that break out to his flute solo seem almost logical by the time it rolls around, but spaghetti-spined frontman Stu Mackenzie still finds time to keep things grounded with a delicate “thank you” to his hypnotised throng.