In an interview with NZ Musician back in 2018 Ōtepoti garage rock/surf rock act Koizilla reflected on the change in sound as their EPs went by.

Zach Nicholls, the group’s singer/songwriter, noted how the songs on ‘Doomsurfsurfdoom’ and ‘Clean the Kitchen’ are happier, rockier ones – compared to their 2017 EP ‘Blunder Brother’. Bassist Connor Blackie noted; “We could have sat on those songs and not released anything, and tried to curate like an album of one sound, or one particular idea. But it’s just easier to get out everything we have, and because we have three different… sounding EPs everyone’s guessing! We’re still guessing!”

The same holds true with their 2024 album ‘SICK’ with keyboardist and pipes player Hilary Faul leading Koizilla away from the harsher vibes and into an irreverent pulpiness, more Aquabats and less Osees. That comparison is apt for …andonandon…, full of synths and shaggy Hammer Horror vocal work, and the album’s first single, Ornithology, with some admittedly goofy carnival-barker and enthusiastic summertime Moog.

While still showing off their talents for fuzz Something makes prominent feature of the flute. Though not out of place, it perhaps makes what would’ve been a great Paisley Underground track into what sounds at times like a Jethro Tull pastiche. The woodwind continues into the title track, which is sparse save for the discordant fingerpicking dissolving into an equally discordant freakout.

Then there’s Clouds which heavily features a güiro, one of those little wooden instruments carved and hollowed out to look like a frog. The skeleton of this song is hung on its tell-tale rasp produced when a stick is scraped along its back before, again, disintegrating into a wall of sound. It’s about this point of the album where the group’s ethos of intentionally slapdash DIY lack of curation begins working against them. The irreverent beach fuzz begins to be sapped of whatever punch they inflicted as the minutes drag on.

Despite any confusion Koizilla’s ‘SICK’ remains a strong showing, with a leisurely-evolving sound and style that cuts through the obligatory beach gimmick with a cognisant sense of humour and unconventional constructive approach.