If there’s a canon of musicians who craft music driven by experimentations in sound – Dirty Projectors, Animal Collective, Tune-Yards – it would only make sense to add Gotye to that list.
Gotye (pronounced “gore-ti-yeah,” or “Gaultier,” as in the fashion designer Jean Paul) is the moniker of Wally De Backer, the Belgian-born Australian musician who also plays in the Melbourne-based band The Basics. While Gotye has released two albums in Australia, including 2006’s Like Drawing Blood, he’s had only brief brushes of notoriety in the U.S. (the song “Learnalilgivinanlovin” appeared on the soundtrack for the feature film Whip It). That is, until “Somebody That I Used To Know” was released.
With a video that’s been viewed well over fifty-five million times on YouTube, “Somebody That I Used To Know” (from his new Making Mirrors album) is the best sort of earthy, organic song we could hope for from Gotye because it's somehow both intangible and catchy (think Dirty Projectors’ “Stillness is the Move”). Backed by what sounds like a prickly xylophone, guest vocalist Kimbra sings her side of this song about a breakup, adding a dynamic which feels borrowed from the XX. While this is Kimbra’s only formal appearance on Making Mirrors, she and De Backer produce such excellent harmonies together that one wishes she would have appeared more on the album.
Outside of “Somebody That I Used To Know,” Making Mirrors operates in a couple of different dimensions; sometimes soulful, sometimes synth-y and computerized. In the opening title track, we get a minute of De Backer’s breathy vocals stretched over a haunting repeated melody. That’s followed immediately by “Easy Way Out,” a track with a swingin’ Sixties vibe which feels like it belongs on a Beck album.
As diverse as Making Mirrors is, it doesn’t feel disjointed – it's simply an album of many parts and pieces. De Backer brings out his soulful vocals on “I Feel Better” and “In Your Light.” Both have unique arrangements – but if “I Feel Better” feels like Jamie Lidell’s “Another Day” (or perhaps The Foundations’ “Build Me Up Buttercup”), then “In Your Light” is more akin to the Sade song “Soldier of Love.”
In both “Eyes Wide Open” and “State of the Art” De Backer continues playing with sound, if in very different ways. Where “Eyes Wide Open” plays as a more traditional, optimistic rock song, “State of the Art” utilizes jazzy percussion and altered computerized vocals, ending in a public service-style disclaimer, saying: “Incidentally, on the track you just heard there were no keyboard performances, just the occasional pressing of buttons.” It’s the longest track on the album, and perhaps the most interesting.
Even so, for all the emphasis which has been placed on sound experimentation here, lyrically Gotye’s songs contain an element of storytelling that makes them feel like they belong in traditional musicals. “Smoke and Mirrors” in particular, with its jazzy keyboard and lyrics like “you’re a fraud and you know it” seems like it should be matched with some off-Broadway choreography, building to a Stomp-worthy conclusion.
Making Mirrors might not have a firmly cohesive aesthetic, but it is genuinely interesting – and it’s raised enough eyebrows to have sold out most of Gotye’s spring tour, which includes a stop at Coachella. It’s anybody’s guess what more Gotye’s got in store for us.
Artist:
www.gotye.com/
www.myspace.com/gotye
www.facebook.com/gotye
www.twitter.com/gotye
Album:
Making Mirrors is out now on Universal Republic. Buy it here on Amazon .
