Gotye: Artist You Should Know

I first came across the music of Australian artist Gotye (pronounced “go-tee-yay” as in Gaultier, the French translation of his last name Wouter) a few years back with the full-length “Like Drawing Blood”… a standout album which swung wildly from dark electronic pop to 60’s soul raveups to dubby reggae to Cut Chemist-ish sample-heavy hip-hop. Yet everything was tied together with Wouter’s voice, which seemed informed less by modern indie artists and more by expressive, emotive 80’s era pop singers like Peter Gabriel or Howard Jones. A unique mix, to be sure.

Now comes Gotye’s new full-length,“‘Making Mirrors”, an exercise in the same genre-shuffling as his previous, yet it is clear the songwriting has reached a new level. Although it contains the requisite feel-good pop ditties (“In Your Light” & “I Feel Better”), overall the album feels a bit moodier and darker, which makes for some genuinely penetrating moments. Like the edgy “Easy Way Out” or stalker-ready “Don’t Worry We’ll Be Watching You”.

Jason Bentley has been spinning the track “Somebody That I Used To Know” on MBE, a fantastically bitter farewell to an ex who must have pissed him off something special…

However I’m drawn more to the brooding, cinematic “Smoke & Mirrors”, check it here:

— KCRW DJ Dan Wilcox