🎵 Boardface — Gotye (2003)

The debut studio album by Belgian-Australian artist Gotye (Wally De Backer), originally released on 15 February 2003 via Creative Vibes.

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📖 About the Album

Boardface is the debut studio album by Gotye, the musical project of Belgian-Australian multi-instrumentalist Wally De Backer. Recorded between 2001–2002 in Melbourne, Victoria, the album was born from a series of handcrafted CD releases that De Backer produced and distributed himself, handwriting track lists and colouring in cover sleeves in pencil for approximately 50 copies of his first collection.

After receiving positive feedback from Melbourne street press and Triple J radio, De Backer continued producing sample-based recordings, eventually securing a distribution deal. The resulting album — Boardface — collects the best tracks from his three earlier EPs into a cohesive 57-minute journey through indie rock, electronica, downtempo, and experimental soundscapes.

The album blends sampled textures with live instrumentation, showcasing the DIY ethos and meticulous sound design that would later define Gotye's breakthrough work on Like Drawing Blood (2006) and the global phenomenon Making Mirrors (2011), which featured the smash hit "Somebody That I Used to Know."

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🎶 Tracklist — Boardface (Full Album)

Total Length: 57:36

Note: On the original physical release, track 12 is unlisted. The song "Baby" ends at 4:50 and is followed by 1:10 of silence before the hidden reprise begins.

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🎹 Bonus — EP (Gotye 2001)

This bucket also includes tracks from Gotye's original 2001 EP — the handcrafted four-track demo that started it all. These are the recordings De Backer made before Boardface was compiled, featuring early versions and tracks that didn't make the final album cut.

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🚧 WIP — Boardface EP (Coming Soon)

The following tracks from the Boardface EP (the second of Gotye's three pre-album EPs) are not yet available in this bucket but will be added soon:

These tracks were originally released on the Boardface EP — the second of three handcrafted four-track CD releases that preceded the full Boardface album. Once added, they will be available in an EP (Gotye 2003)/ folder.

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🎤 Credits

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📂 Bucket Contents

This Hugging Face Storage Bucket contains the full Boardface album, the 2001 EP, and album cover art — all in MP3/JPG format.

R-Kentaren/boardface/
├── cover.jpg                          ← Album cover art
├── README.md                          ← This file
├── EP (Gotye 2001)/
│   ├── 1. Out Here in The Cold.mp3
│   ├── 2. True to You.mp3
│   ├── 3. What Do You Want？.mp3
│   ├── 4. Riding The Pumpkin Home.mp3
│   ├── 5. Loath to Refuse.mp3
│   ├── 6. (2nd Generation Dub) Lullaby.mp3
│   ├── 7. Eighties Bonanza.mp3
│   └── 8. Baby.mp3
├── main/
│   ├── 1. Out Here in The Cold.mp3
│   ├── 2. True to You.mp3
│   ├── 3. The Only Thing I Know.mp3
│   ├── 4. Wonder Why You Want Her.mp3
│   ├── 5. What Do You Want？.mp3
│   ├── 6. Out Of My Mind.mp3
│   ├── 7. Here in This Place.mp3
│   ├── 8. Waiting for You.mp3
│   ├── 9. Loath to Refuse.mp3
│   ├── 10. Noir Excursion.mp3
│   ├── 11. Baby.mp3
│   └── 12. .mp3  (hidden/untitled reprise)
└── EP (Gotye 2003)/  ← 🚧 Coming Soon
    ├── 1. Lordy Momma.mp3
    ├── 2. Down There Too.mp3
    ├── 3. Children of the Universe.mp3
    └── 4. The One for Me.mp3

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🔧 How to Access

Mount the Bucket

You can mount this bucket directly to your environment using the Xet storage backend:

pip install huggingface_hub[hf_xet]
huggingface-cli bucket mount R-Kentaren/boardface /mnt/boardface

Download via Python

from huggingface_hub import HfApi

api = HfApi()

# List all files in the bucket
files = api.list_bucket_tree("R-Kentaren/boardface")
for f in files:
    print(f.path, f.size)

# Download a specific file
api.download_bucket_files(
    repo_id="R-Kentaren/boardface",
    allow_patterns=["main/1. Out Here in The Cold.mp3"],
    local_dir="./boardface"
)

# Download the cover art
api.download_bucket_files(
    repo_id="R-Kentaren/boardface",
    allow_patterns=["cover.jpg"],
    local_dir="./boardface"
)

Download via CLI

# Download the entire bucket
huggingface-cli download R-Kentaren/boardface --repo-type bucket --local-dir ./boardface

# Download only the full album
huggingface-cli download R-Kentaren/boardface --repo-type bucket --include "main/*" --local-dir ./boardface

# Download only the 2001 EP
huggingface-cli download R-Kentaren/boardface --repo-type bucket --include "EP (Gotye 2001)/*" --local-dir ./boardface

# Download just the cover art
huggingface-cli download R-Kentaren/boardface cover.jpg --repo-type bucket --local-dir ./boardface

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📜 Album Background

In 2001, Gotye recorded his first tracks primarily using samples, producing a four-track CD that included "Out Here in the Cold." He handcrafted approximately 50 copies — handwriting track lists and colouring in the cover sleeve in pencil — and sent them to every radio station and recording industry contact he could find in the phonebook, following each up with phone calls to ensure delivery.

The positive reception from Melbourne street press and Triple J gave De Backer the confidence to continue with further sample-based recordings. Around this time, he met singer-songwriter Kris Schroeder at a party in Mt Eliza, and the two began performing together as The Basics, forming an enduring musical partnership.

Two more four-track collections followed, each handcrafted in the same style. As interest in the Gotye project grew, De Backer was eventually offered a distribution deal, and Boardface was released in 2003 as a compilation of the best tracks from all three EPs.

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⚖️ License & Legal Notice

This bucket is shared for archival and educational purposes. The original album is copyright Creative Vibes / Wally De Backer. If you enjoy this music, please support the artist by purchasing the album through official channels:

• Spotify
• Apple Music
• Bandcamp
• Wikipedia

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🔗 Related

• Gotye's Discography:

  • Boardface (2003) — this bucket
  • Like Drawing Blood (2006)
  • Making Mirrors (2011)

• Bucket Owner: R-Kentaren (Rico Ardiansyah)

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Gotye — Boardface (2003) | Stored on Hugging Face Buckets