Once again, I have to thank Rebecca–Girlpants’ own on-the-street reporter in Sydney–for a stellar music rec. Not only is she a great value (wish I could pay my American writers in Australian dollars) but she’s also got her finger on the skittery little pulse of a scene I couldn’t possibly cover without her. This time, the recommendation is Melbourne’s Gotye. He (and here “he” = Wally De Backer, one man soul train) gets a lot of comparisons to fellow Aussie cut & paste artists The Avalanches, but really I hear more of Jamie Liddell’s highwire funk heroics in Like Drawing Blood’s broad palette of sounds.
The album begins with “The Only Way,” filled to the brim with handclappery and buttmoving staccato beats and Junior Boys-y vocals. There’s not a predictable bone in this record’s, um… body, though. Immediately afterward, “Heart’s a Mess” slows things down, drawing out the latent emotion in the opener and laying it bare. Later on, “Thank You For Your Time” plays on the banality of automated consumer culture in a near-Jamiroquai-style nu-funk shuffle (and I mean that in a nice way). “Learnalilgivinanlovin” follows to complete the sharpest one-two punch on the album, a straight up Motown groove that recalls the best from Liddell’s Multiply. Closer “Night Drive” is maybe the finest song on the record.
Like Drawing Blood is out now in Australia and New Zealand, but there’s no telling when it’ll get a domestic release. If you like these sample tracks and feel like paying the premium, you can get the record direct from the band with shockingly reasonable shipping costs (buy).
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