No one else is doing it like Mk.gee.
Born Michael Gordon, the New Jersey multi-instrumentalist has shot to stardom as a boundary-pushing guitar pop artist. Making waves with his latest record Two Star & The Dream Police released back in February 2024, it’s as if he appeared out of nowhere despite busting his guitar chops for a good minute. He released his debut album Pronounced “McGee” in 2018 with songs sounding like a cross between Mac DeMarco and Kurt Vile and later in 2021, he gained recognition by writing for his close friend Dijon’s loose alt-R&B record Absolutely. Now with Two Star under his belt, Mk.gee has designed a sound that’s unequivocally his.
I’ve heard people say his album sounds like Phil Collins, Sting, Arthur Russell, Jai Paul and even Frank Ocean. While I wholeheartedly agree, Mk.gee avoids exact imitations and instead borrows the artists’ foundational fibres. Further, his music is best summarised by the concept of liminal spaces, empty and eerily familiar places stuck in a transitory state. Sure, you can draw upon inspirations, but Mk.gee’s simultaneously minimal and maximal production gives his pop songs an uncanny strangeness compared to sanitised pop dominating the radio. On Two Star’s cover art, Mk.gee is depicted standing veiled as he wields his guitar like a glistening blade. You can imagine my elation when he announced his concert at Melbourne’s elegant Forum Theatre on 8 December—the final show of his world tour—where I could finally marvel at him recreating his singular, off-kilter chords in the flesh using the same guitar.
Mk.gee was one of, if not the, best artists I’ve seen grace the Forum. It transformed into an ethereal space which allowed Mk.gee and his bandmates guitarist Andrew Aged and electronic producer Zack Sekoff to effortlessly power through Two Star. The set opened with the desertic ‘Dream police’, as the stage was engulfed with a thick fog impossible to make anything out from. Mk.gee’s first strum on his guitar ignited two beams of light that shot out at the audience, illuminating the trio as if they were angels. His guitar’s raucous, enveloping sound shook the historical venue’s foundations.
The Mk.gee live experience is rougher-around-the-edges compared to the laboured-over records. Swiftly following ‘Dream police’ was ‘How many miles’, a swaying, smooth soul jam subdued in its studio counterpart, as when performed live, Mk.gee’s improvised guitar noodling in a boisterous extended outro gave so much more personality to the already-enthralling soundscape. Romantic red lights adorned the stage for ‘Lonely Fight’, a sophisti-pop comedown jam that shows Mk.gee’s more delicate side. The ceaseless reverberating arpeggios in the next track, ‘Little Bit More’, furthered the set’s transfixing intimate stretch. Even the brooding blankets of echoed feedback used as transitions between these songs were wondrous and made for meditative songs themselves.
Mk.gee doesn’t stick to just one lane—the show’s latter half got more intense. ‘New Low’, the album’s most chaotic track, felt just as much so in person. A barrage of strobe lights accompanied the scattered amen breaks and the glitched-out, volatile synths Mk.gee played aside on the stage. The high energy was prolonged in the groovy Dijon-coproduced ‘DNM’ which sent the audience bouncing off their feet when he played it a second time. He asked the crowd, “What do you guys really want?” and heard a massive cheer for “play ‘DNM’ again” in return. He delivered the third rendition in a row. Mk.gee kept the hype ablaze by breaking into the aptly titled ‘ROCKMAN’, his breakout new wave hit channelling Sting. He saved his best tunes for last: the harmonious power ballad ‘Are You Looking Up’ was glorious with its crystalline timbre, same with the catchy ‘Alesis’ opening the encore. Every lyric on that earworm could be a hook, so thank goodness Mk.gee kept everyone singing with another performance of ‘ROCKMAN’. Ending both the show and tour was a majestic cover of Céline Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’, which trails back to Mk.gee’s incredible guitar skills; how he could make the sound of a flute with his Fender, I have no idea. It was a poignant, striking way to farewell Mk.gee’s victory lap across the globe.
No one else is doing it like Mk.gee.
His Melbourne performance was a once-in-a-lifetime show and the last glimpse of the star in emergence—he’s only going to skyrocket in popularity from here. Two Star & The Dream Police carries a divine sound unique to Mk.gee, where people will eventually use him as an artistic reference point. Where indie artists in the 2010s flocked to DeMarco’s jangly pop sound, there’ll be a swarm of imitators for Mk.gee’s remarkable artistry. You can’t complain though—Mk.gee, who conducts himself reservedly, doesn’t seem fussed. The more innovation, the better. He’s the future, just wait.
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