Capturing the fraught moment in popular music history as reflected in and anticipated by Since I Left You (2000), the debut studio album from electronic music group The Avalanches.

Since I Left You has a reputation amongst its advocates that exceeds those of nearly all of its closest peers. Yet despite the inordinate amount of attention this album has received, it has never been thoroughly examined in context. While repeatedly celebrated for its artistry, technical skill, and emotional resonance - in particular its sample-based material and then-cutting edge technological feats within the electronic music genre - it has never been definitively placed in the world that produced it.

Charles Fairchild studies this album in a way no one else has. Since I Left You is placed in its historical, technological, and cultural contexts and is examined for the social and aesthetic attributes it was said to possess at the time of its release. There is a focus on the clear set of aesthetic aspirations that guided the album's creators and how those creators pasted together the fragments of many sound worlds.

The Avalanches’ era defining debut album ‘Since I Left You’ has finally come of age. Now 20 years old, ‘Since I Left You’ gets a timely reissue along with an additional record of fifteen remixes from the likes of MF DOOM, Stereolab and Carl Craig. The Avalanches made ‘Since I Left You’ out of hundreds of vinyl samples, the grand finale and biggest climactic triumph of the Sampladelic Decade. Containing classic singles ‘Frontier Psychiatrist’ and ’Since I Left You’, the reissue’s remixes give each track a new lease of life, while still maintaining the sunny disposition of the originals.

Do you remember what you were doing twenty years ago? I do. I was a fifteen year old kid from the burbs, spending my summer playing football and recreating WWF classics in the back yard while dressed like a nerdish Eminem (bleach blonde hair and everything). Then a wacky-ass radio track packed with film snippets and horse noises worked its way into my teenage brain and changed things for good. The Avalanches were insane, inspired and in full effect; following the 'horse song' ("Frontier Psychiatrist") with a soulful and swooning summer jam ("Since I Left You") which has played in my head ever since. Family Allowance firmly in hand I took my privileged ass off to the Market Hall, picked up a CD copy of this album and spent the whole bus journey home feasting my eyes on the liner notes and sleeve artwork. As I hit the play button on my naff home stereo, I was whisked away Dorothy-style and taken on a head spinning journey through 50 years of popular music. Leaving the monochrome mundanity of Bolton behind, I soared through technicolour stage sets of paradise islands, Brooklyn block parties and countryside BBQs, Sci-Fi spectaculars and rewired romances as 3,500 samples were sticky taped together before my very ears. The plunderphonic sound of six men who spent their adolescence rummaging through the bargain bins of Melbourne's record shops, "Since I Left You" applies hip hop's cut'n'paste mentality to the full gamut of weird and wonderful pop, from exotica to erotica, disco and funk to lounge and psych. Unlike anything I'd ever heard before, and better than any imitators I've heard since, The Avalanches are truly in a class of their own. 

TRACK LISTING

4LP
Disc 1
Since I Left You
Stay Another Season
Radio
Two Hearts In 3/4 Time
Avalanche Rock
Flight Tonight
Close To You
Diners Only
A Different Feeling

Disc 2
Electricity
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life
Pablo's Cruise
Frontier Psychiatrist
Etoh
Summer Crane
Little Journey
Live At Dominoes
Extra Kings

Disc 3
Since I Left You (Cornelius Remix)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Edan Remix)
Frontier Psychiatrist (Mario Caldato Jr's 85% Remix)
Close To You (Sun Araw Remix)
Since I Left You (Stereolab Remix)
Flight Tonight (Canyons Travel Agent Dub)
Radio (Sinkane Remix)

Disc 4
Since I Left You (Prince Paul Remix)
Electricity (Harvey's Nightclub Re-edit)
Summer Crane (Black Dice Remix)
Extra Kings (Deakin Remix)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (MF DOOM Remix)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Dragged By Leon Vynehall)
A Different Feeling (Carl Craig's Paperclip People Remix)
Thank You Caroline (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)

2CD
Disc 1
Since I Left You
Stay Another Season
Radio
Two Hearts In 3/4 Time
Avalanche Rock
Flight Tonight
Close To You
Diners Only
A Different Feeling
Electricity
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life
Pablo's Cruise
Frontier Psychiatrist
Etoh
Summer Crane
Little Journey
Live At Dominoes
Extra Kings

Disc 2
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (MF DOOM Remix)
Summer Crane (Black Dice Remix)
Frontier Psychiatrist (Mario Caldato Jr's 85% Remix)
Electricity (Dr. Rockit's Dirty Kiss Remix)
Electricity (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
Thank You Caroline (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
Thank You Caroline (Andy Votel Remix)
So Why So Sad (The Avalanches Sean Penn Mix) – Manic Street Preachers
The Shining (The Avalanches Good Word For The Weekend Mix) – Badly Drawn Boy
Pablo's Cruise (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
I'm A Cuckoo (The Avalanches Remix - DJ Edit) – Belle And Sebastian
Chico (The Avalanches Wernham Hogg Mix) – The Concretes
Fade Together (The Avalanches Remix) – Franz Ferdinand
Since I Left You (Stereolab Remix)
Flight Tonight (Canyons Travel Agent Dub)
Radio (Sinkane Remix)
A Different Feeling (Ernest Saint Laurent Remix)
A Different Feeling (Carl Craig's Paperclip People Remix)
Two Hearts In 3/4 Time (Jackson & His Computer Band Remix)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Dragged By Leon Vynehall)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Edan Remix)

Building on the sample-based approach of their classic albums "Since I Left You" and "Wildflower", but stepping boldly into new terrain, "We Will Always Love You" is the new full length masterpiece from The Avalanches. Check the cover for a photo of Ann Druyan (Director of the Voyager Golden Record Project), her cosmic love story with Carl Sagan inspiring this body of work.

An exploration of the vibrational relationship between light, sound and spirit, We Will Always Love You doubles as “an exploration of the human voice” and a spiritual reckoning via the big questions “who are we really? What happens when we die?’”. So says Robbie Chater, who alongside bandmate Tony DiBlasi and collaborator Andrew Szekeres has moved beyond the party-up exuberance of The Avalanches’s youthful music to a tender, reflective sound infused with hard-earned life wisdom.

If there’s a single spark for We Will Always Love You it’s the story of the love affair between Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan: “science communicators” whose writings and TV programs brought the ever-deepening mysteries of astronomy and astrophysics to the mass audience. Chater was profoundly moved by the fact that the couple’s romance was captured and carried into space, thanks to the Voyager Interstellar Message Project. Druyan served as Creative Director in charge of curating the Golden Record: earthling music and assorted terrestrial sounds gathered for the contemplation of any alien civilisations that might be out there and be advanced enough to construct a playback system.

Originally, Druyan was set to be a presence on We Will Always Love You: a studio was booked to record her telling her own story. That never transpired, but Druyan “gave us permission to use her photo on the album cover,” says Chater. “We photographed it off a static-y television set and ran it through a spectograph to make the cover image. So that was a beautiful way that Ann could still be part of the record. We turned her into sound and back again”

Sampling remains at the core of The Avalanches sound, but alongside all of the sample ghosts, We Will Always Love You features an array of living guests who contribute vocals and lyrics: Blood Orange, Rivers Cuomo, Pink Siifu, Jamie xx, CLYPSO, Denzel Curry, Tricky, Neneh Cherry, Sampa the Great, Sananda Maitreya and Vashti Bunyan and many more exciting collaborations to be revealed over the coming months. The Avalanches’s music has always dripped with melody, but because of this expanded role for guest singers and writers, We Will Always Love You is their most song-oriented album yet.

“For us, to make the same record again, no matter how well executed, wouldn’t have been satisfying," says Chater. "We were looking to do something that would open up possibilities for the future. Take a bit of a left turn that frees us up to do whatever we want to next.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Inspired by love, humanity, space and at least 6,000 sample-able records, 'We Will Always Love You' sees The Avalanches return in record time for a third album The album dips into hip hop, disco, house and electronica with all the warmth, wit and wanderlust we've come to expect from the Aussies.

TRACK LISTING

01. Ghost Story (feat. Orono)
02. Song For Barbara Payton
03. We Will Always Love You (feat. Blood Orange)
04. The Divine Chord (feat. MGMT & Johnny Marr)
05. Solitary Ceremonies
06. Interstellar Love (feat. Leon Bridges)
07. Ghost Story Pt. 2 (feat. Orono & Leon Bridges)
08. Reflecting Light (feat. Sananda Maitreya & Vashti Bunyan)
09. Carrier Waves
10. Oh The Sunn! (feat. Perry Farrell)
11. We Go On (feat. Cola Boyy & Mick Jones)
12. Star Song.IMG
13. Until Daylight Comes (feat. Tricky)
14. Wherever You Go (feat. Jamie Xx, Neneh Cherry & CLYPSO)
15. Music Makes Me High
16. Pink Champagne
17. Take Care In Your Dreaming (feat. Denzel Curry, Tricky & Sampa The Great)
18. Overcome
19. Gold Sky (feat. Kurt Vile)
20. Always Black (feat. Pink Siifu)
21. Dial D For Devotion (feat. Karen O)
22. Running Red Lights (feat. Rivers Cuomo & Pink Siifu)
23. Born To Lose
24. Music Is The Light (feat. Cornelius & Kelly Moran)
25. Weightless

In a collage of fuzz guitars, tuning radios, pitched up soul samples, pitched down exotica records, and a whole lot of background chatter, The Avalanches return after an unprecedented 16 year wait. Created by the band’s core duo - Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi – "Wildflower" is nothing less than The Beach Boys’ "Smile" reimagined in the Daisy Age - a mind-bending cartoon road movie that’s best viewed with closed eyes and an open mind. Unmistakeably the work of Australia's sample kings, "Wildflower" is a Technicolor kaleidoscope of everything great and groovy about music, blessed with the warm and dreamlike aesthetic we first fell in love with on the sublime "Since I Left You". A throwback to those halcyon days when artists made albums, as opposed to a couple of radio singles and eight tracks of filler, The Avalanches sophomore LP drifts from one track to the next, taking us on a tripped out tour of downtown Melbourne in the summer time.

Lead single "Frankie Sinatra" divided the critics on its initial release, making a marmite statement with its oddball calypso samples, oompah brass and unhinged lyrics from Danny Brown and MF DOOM. Here, nestled comfortably between the gorgeous summertime soul of "Because I'm Me" and the sampledelic disco of "Subways", the track makes perfect nonsense. The inner city synth pop of "If I Was A Folkstar" strolls through the sunshine like a laid back relative of Cut Copy's "Bright Like Neon Love", while the spectral "Colours", featuring some heavily treated vocals from Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue, is as dreamy and doped up as pop music gets. Elsewhere Ariel Pink, Father John Misty, Warren Ellis (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds)  and Toro Y Moi’s Chaz Bundick make cameos, as does Biz Markie on the light-hearted, full stomached old school hip hop of "Noisy Eater". The dusty sixties soul of "Harmony" leaps out the grooves in the middle of a succession of dreamy sketches (in a day-glo Dilla style) before the triple threat of "The Wozard Of Iz", "Over The Turnstyles" and "Sunshine" form the apex of an outstanding LP. "Kaleidoscopic Lovers" and "Stepkids" serve up a pair of pastoral love songs before the driving haze-gaze of "Saturday Night Inside Out" leads us off into the sunset with the widest smile of our lives. Against all odds and expectations, The Avalanches have done the impossible, following up an instant classic with a second album which is even better than the first. If we have to wait another sixteen years for the next one, at least we'll be waiting in the company of two flawless records. 

TRACK LISTING

01. The Leaves Were Falling
02. Because I’m Me
03. Frankie Sinatra
04. Subways
05. Going Home
06. If I Was A Folkstar
07. Colours
08. Zap!
09. The Noisy Eater
10. Wildflower
11. Harmony
12. Live A Lifetime Love
13. Park Music
14. Livin’ Underwater (Is Somethin’ Wild)
15. The Wozard Of Iz
16. Over The Turnstiles
17. Sunshine
18. Light Up
19. Kaleidoscopic Lovers
20. Stepkids
21. Saturday Night Inside Out
22. Frankie Sinatra (Extended Mix)

Do you remember what you were doing fifteen years ago? I do. I was a fifteen year old kid from the burbs, spending my summer playing football and recreating WWF classics in the back yard while dressed like a nerdish Eminem (bleach blonde hair and everything). Then a wacky-ass radio track packed with film snippets and horse noises worked its way into my teenage brain and changed things for good. The Avalanches were insane, inspired and in full effect; following the 'horse song' ("Frontier Psychiatrist") with a soulful and swooning summer jam ("Since I Left You") which has played in my head ever since. Family Allowance firmly in hand I took my privilaged ass off to the Market Hall, picked up a CD copy of this album and spent the whole bus journey home feasting my eyes on the liner notes and sleeve artwork. As I hit the play button on my naff home stereo, I was whisked away Dorothy-style and taken on a head spinning journey through 50 years of popular music. Leaving the monochrome mundanity of Bolton behind, I soared through technicolour stage sets of paradise islands, Brooklyn block parties and countryside BBQs, Sci-Fi spectaculars and rewired romances as 3,500 samples were sticky taped together before my very ears. The plunderphonic sound of six men who spent their adolesence rummaging through the bargain bins of Melbourne's record shops, "Since I Left You" applies hip hop's cut'n'paste mentality to the full gamut of weird and wonderful pop, from exotica to erotica, disco and funk to lounge and psych. Unlike anything I'd ever heard before, and better than any imitators I've heard since, The Avalanches are truly in a class of their own.  

TRACK LISTING

Since I Left You 4:18
Stay Another Season 2:15
Radio 4:52
Two Hearts In 3/4 Time 3:22
Avalanche Rock 0:23
Flight Tonight 3:51
Close To You 3:56
Diners Only 1:43
A Different Feeling 4:23
Electricity 3:29
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life 2:20
Pablo's Cruise 0:53
Frontier Psychiatrist 4:47
Etoh 5:02
Summer Crane 4:39
Little Journey 1:53
Live At Dominoes 5:38
Extra Kings 3:46