King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, “Changes.”

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard seem determined that their fans should have very little free time. Who knows how long it will take to fully absorb and process the five albums the six-member Melbourne psych-rock outfit has released this year alone? Changes, the band’s third album to be released this month, is a departure from the psychedelic guitar noodling of early October’s Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava, toward a jazzier amalgam of Queen, Stevie Wonder and the Beastie Boys.

Only those familiar with 2017’s Sketches of East Brunswick, KGLW’s collaboration with American stoner jazz collective Mild High Club, would even suspect upon hearing the opening of the album, during which a fast hi-hat pattern chases a slithery piano melody, that this blue note-inflected noodling was emanating from a gizzard of any kind.

During the 13-minute epic, synth sounds transform the strange soundscape into a spacey groove replete with electric piano, tubby bass and whispery lyrics.

“Change for its own sake/ Uniformity gives me a bellyache,” guitarist-singer Stu Mackenzie sings. The song is sprawling but remains thoroughly chillaxed, at times punctuated by mellow scatting, until the huge rock outro reminds listeners they have a head with which to bang.

The album’s other extended jam, “Astroturf,” which clocks in at seven and a half minutes, is pinioned by syncopated drumming and keys. Just  imagine an uptempo “The Virgin Suicides” soundtrack from Air. Whispery vocals are accompanied by blasts of horns. During the second half of the song, a funky flute dances with bubbly synth bass. Here, a band that earlier this month released an album that evoked comparisons to Santana, Yes and Magma seems equally at home dipping into the vibe from the Beastie Boys and classic vinyl.

The album’s five other tracks all set up their sonic base camps around vintage electric piano grooves and bumping drumbeats. “Hate Dancin” calls to mind Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend” as well as any number of songs by the Partridge Family with its major key cheeriness and plunky Fender Rhodes piano sounds.

Standouts include “No Body,” which feels like a funky guitar solo, a further twist on Ween’s take on Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain” with a touch of the Eagles’ “Hotel California.” The song’s huge hi-hat blasts add a touch of Yoshimi-era Flaming Lips sound to the sonic stew. “Gondii” sports a Krautrock vibe with Motorik-inspired beat and bleepy synths sounds. Mackenzie’s sort of new wave sounding vocals manage to sound mechanized but soulful.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard seems to operate almost like a bacterium or other single-cell organism, in that the band’s growth seems exponential rather than linear. Like a bacterial culture spreading to cover the bottom of the petri dish, KGLW is constantly exploring new musical landscapes, and like any good explorers, sending back plenty of maps of these territories.

Follow writer David Gill at Twitter.com/saxum_paternus.