Long before his era-defining global smash, Wally De Backer split his time between Melbourne trio The Basics and crafting sample-based confection on his own as Gotye. You can hear the latter skillset begin to properly bloom on 2006’s dusty soul homage “Learnalilgivinanlovin,” which paired his surprisingly punchy vocals with vintage sounds inspired by (and even lifted from) Phil Spector’s famous Wall of Sound production. De Backer is no slouch as a producer either, and the same album’s “Heart’s a Mess” demonstrated how his DIY collage approach could sound just as emotionally ripe as anything made by more convention means. Channeling Peter Gabriel’s prime on 2010’s “Eyes Wide Open,” De Backer flaunted a firm understanding of classic commercial sensibilities that would make his next single one for the record books. That would be “Somebody That I Used to Know,” a breakup-inspired duet with then-unknown Kimbra that was built on a humble sample of Brazilian guitarist Luiz Floriano Bonfa. It topped the charts in more than a dozen countries, along with triple j’s Hottest 100 poll in Australia. Multiple Grammys and ARIAs followed, and while De Backer has only surfaced sporadically since that outsized success, his songbook continues to resonate with anyone who appreciates its unusual Venn diagram of left-field compositional methods, heartfelt songwriting, and old-fashioned pop intuition.