The Avalanches

I did put up a review of "Frontier Psychiatrist" on my blog, but it doesn't fully do justice to the song, and certainly not to the album.

I don't have much to add that wasn't in my review, but what is interesting is how amazingly popular the album is here in Australia. Topping all the critics' lists, number six on the official national "alternative chart" (whatever that means), "Frontier Psychiatrist" voted 6th best song of the year by listeners of Triple J, the very popular national youth radio network. And of course the album plays everywhere, especially in music stores.

Sometimes this turns me against an album (the overkill effect), but instead all I can feel is a strange excitement - there are obviously a lot of people out there who are listening to really good music! The world can't be all bad.

Not surprising though, I guess. A great deal of the album's magic stems from the fact that as strange and wonderful it is, it's also a very accessable album. It's a party record as well as a sonic treasure chest, and its strict sampling aesthetic is leavened by the overwhelming presence of great toonz. There's something quite heartening about a record that can cross so many boundaries like that. Maybe it's the Dubya of pop?

Hopefully I'll get to see them live in two weeks. Already excited.

N. xx

www.beat.com.au

said that the BDO performance was boring (more or less), did you go the Melbourne concert?

I'm seeing them next week! :)

-Mike

What seems to be the problem, listening to the single, is that the band - like most crate-digging outfits - are too tasteful in their bliss. It's a single that does for breezy, uplifting pop what mid-90s trip-hop did for funk and old skool rap: fusses over it and squashes it a little.

Chatting on IM I compared it to GYBE!, too - the problem with that band being that they take a set of sounds which they know and we know stand for certain emotional things (seriousness, high emotion, existential pain) and they work them and work them and yes, we do feel that stuff, and they're a likeable and effective band for me but impossible to love. And I'm concerned that the Avalanches might have a similar effect - house beasts, lounge sounds, fluttery vocals, goofy samples, ah right I need to be joyful now, ta muchly.

Or maybe I'm overanalysing and I just don't like the band because the tunes are a bit sickly.

i think sukia, east of suez and tipsy have all done better with this template (although, having said that, the new tipsy album is a little disappointing too)

some of 'since i left you' is pretty good, its just nowhere near as good as everyone says.

oh, and does anyone remember that song 'slow walking' that the avalanches did a couple years ago? now, that was superb (although the rest of that ep was deadly dull)

On previous experience, DJ Shadow excepted, records with hundreds of samples stuck together can irritate. I guess it takes a real talent to "hear" how to integrate lots of disparate components to make something that is more than the sum of the pieces. In some ways I'd rather not know that the Avalanches record was a patchwork of samples. I'd rather see what I think, and find out later.

Are there any albums to which "Since I..." can be compared in MOOD, regardless of whether they were recorded conventionally or are sample- heavy?

I can almost understand why those discovering The Avalanches now might find them disappointing. Firstly, "Since I Left You" is a brilliant opener but an awful awful single. Standing alone it sounds pat, smug and ineffectual whereas on the album it strikes me as glorious and wondrous.

It's obviously been given the big push in the UK because the band now have a celebrated aesthetic and that song serves as a talking point for it in a way that "Frontier Psychiatrist" certainly didn't. And that's what was nice about the album when it came out here: that "what the fuck?" element when the expected indie-punk-hop moves were unexpectedly jettisoned in favour of such sweeping beauty. But now beauty is the band's schtick, so nothing shocks.

And obviously a couple of us did the naughty thing of building up this album to impossibly high expectations, and again the consequence is that the band acquire an uncomfortable sense of auteur-ship. Like, I find it interesting that Tom would use GYBE! as a comparison. I totally understand his point, but I reckon The Avalanches are a lot less deliberate or thought-out than GYBE! (or any of the current post-rock bands for that matter). I mean these guys are basically a group of larrakins who jump around on stage, and if anything the album's (relative) professionalism is a happy accident.

Obviously I can't just wave my hands and make everyone like it. I've been avoiding listening to it since my good headphones broke, but I know that my ardour hasn't faded.

I can see what Tom means about their sound being too predictably tasteful, but the single is unrepresentative. It's pretty much an introduction; when you get further into the album tracks like "A Different Feeling", "Two Hearts In 3-4 Time" and "Close to You" do the euphoric bliss thing far better and far less formulaically.

I don't think they're anything like as "wacky" as Dr C suspects; "Frontier Psychiatrist" is a red herring. "Etoh" and "Summer Crane" are where they really shine, after we're over that aberration; the latter has a rebirth of 70s radio pop cliche to at least equal Daft Punk's "Digital Love".

I think I may have overrated it slightly on Elidor, but only slightly. If you don't feel about halfway through "Electricity" that the rest of the world is suddenly far uglier and far more backward than it was yesterday, and it is now your duty to walk through each moment with a new zest, a new fervour, then I'm not sure whether you should be here.

but seriously, yes, as tim brings up, i blame the lot of you -- tim, robin, otis, ian -- for building expectations up to olympian heights. i *like* the avalanches, but i get the feeling from some that that's not enough; that anything less than devoting your life to them amounts to effrontery of the highest order. i can take some tracks, but i'd end up leaving more. it's a great -- bear with the use of the word here -- "gimmick," but the tunes don't stand up for me. perhaps this will be different by the next album, perhaps this is merely a warm-up. as always, time will tell.

the feeling i'm left with is that an album that alters one's world view should be a bit more convincing. to my ears, since i left you seems content to be breezy and pleasant, but i need more than that. the album, and i almost feel like i can't say this enough, *for me*, lacks a core, it lacks heart. it seems less like music made with genuine joy and love (cf. discovery) than like music crafted with...no, it sounds crafted, period. allow me to pigeonhole it as dance so that i may wrap this up: i believe that dance music is an appeal to your heart and soul from the beyond, which is why i'm not feeling since i left you: it comes across as dance music for your head.

"is being given to hyperbole a prerequisite for being an avalanches fans :)."

Well, maybe :). I do see what you mean that perhaps it doesn't necessarily utterly alter your view of the world in the way that such rapturous praise as thrown forward by myself and Tim, and that, by those criteria, it is a disappointment. I don't have any problem with others like yourself setting up their own, less ambitious criteria, and judging "Since I Left You" to be a success on those terms.

However, when the word "crafted" is used as a pejorative term, I do sometimes start worrying whether outmoded ideas about "meaning it" are being brought into the debate. I don't think *you* are, Fred, but I think you're stepping onto slightly dodgy ground. "Discovery" sounds to me at least as crafted as "Since I Left You"; obviously it's not based around sample collages, but the pomo craft mentality is still there, just less blatant.

"is being given to hyperbole a prerequisite for being an avalanches fans :)."

Well, maybe :). I do see what you mean that perhaps it doesn't necessarily utterly alter your view of the world in the way that such rapturous praise as thrown forward by myself and Tim, and that, by those criteria, it is a disappointment. I don't have any problem with others like yourself setting up their own, less ambitious criteria, and judging "Since I Left You" to be a success on those terms.

However, when the word "crafted" is used as a pejorative term, I do sometimes start worrying whether outmoded ideas about "meaning it" are being brought into the debate. I don't think *you* are, Fred, but I think you're stepping onto slightly dodgy ground. "Discovery" sounds to me at least as crafted as "Since I Left You"; obviously it's not based around sample collages, but the pomo craft mentality is still there, just less obvious.

i highly agree with you that discovery is a crafted album: of this there can be no doubt. however, the point i was trying to make, though i think i failed, was that since i left you sounds crafted. period. like a chemistry experiment. whereas, yes, discovery is crafted, but it goes on from there. and of course this is all highly subjective. ;)

I listened to the album again on good headphones on the way to university today, and yes it is still marvelous marvelous marvelous and I wouldn't change a word of my review. As much as I tend to be on the side of pop when it comes to double-standards, the deliberacy with which The Avalanches stake out their emotional targets doesn't strike me as a problem any more than it does with Destiny's Child or Britney. When I listen to "Born To Make You Happy" I recognise its manipulativeness (albeit not with such an English inflection) but I still *do* feel sad. So is the difference with, let us say, *alternative* music that there's a presumed smugness and/or claim to authenticity that irritates, or is it that we do in fact demand this authenticity in a way we have long ceased to in pop? Is the distinction with Daft Punk that they've so consistently played the artificiality card that the only recourse left to the thinking listener is to perversely perceive an *enhanced* authenticity or sense of meaning?

Ultimately Fred, as I noted before, I can't make you enjoy the album (and indeed you seem to take pleasure in that fact; how very Ned-like of you) but the implication of the "avalanches backlash" is that _Since I Left You_ is an album that dupes people, which hurts me in my heart.

The authenticity thing is a bit of a red herring. I dont think manipulation has anything to do with the realness or not of pop music. The annoying dialogue around sample-based records tends to be one of look-how-eclectic-rare-etc.-these-sounds-are: you're invited to admire the artist's tastes. But that's not happened with the Avalanches so far.

I dont know though, I've just not liked what I've heard much and thought I'd better grope around for a reason. Basically it catapults yours and Robin's soul into an ocean of joy and it leaves me thinking hold on, this is a bit cloying and annoying. And it's always easier to explain why you like something than why you don't. I've got other criticisms but I want to listen to the album and decide whether I'm right about them or not.

daft punk! they could be very well duping me into thinking that they mean all of what they're recording and it's really all just a big joke; i probably buy their simplicity of lyric and emotion because they're foreign and i potentially don't give them enough credit, etc. without getting further mired in theory, discovery hits the bullseye on my heart whereas since i left you merely grazes the ear. meanwhile, there is much hurt in that very same heart by your assertion that i take pleasure in disliking the album in ned- like fashion! ned-like! rarely have i been so insulted. but, yeah, i really wish that i loved since i left you as some of you do; i'm consistently looking out for new music to catapult my heart to the stars and based on all i heard i'm rather disappointed that it wasn't to be with me and the avalanches, though i shall continue to lend it my ear. most troubling, though, is that while i've not taken to the avalanches, radiohead's amnesiac, based on what i've listened to, is quickly becoming something i'm looking forward to. shocker!

Tom - I'd be *very* interested in your response to the album. I still think you'd realise after a while that it isn't that cloying and it *isn't* one of those emptily "smart", "superior" pomo projects, and in fact the most immediately striking thing about it is that it isn't like that. You were slightly disadvantaged by hearing "Frontier Psychiatrist" first - admittedly so did I, but I'd heard the whole album very soon and realised how (happily) untypical a novelty dud it is.

Yes, it works better as an album. It reminds me of a blither version of Hal Willner's Whoops, I'm An Indian - much more technically and sonically tingly but lacking the witty and beguiling mystery that album had for me. It's a good record, it'll soundtrack a Summer well and it deserves the praise it's getting if not the *degree* of praise.

But to finally anwser Dr.C's query: it's very hard to find a record to compare it with. Certainly not 'Discovery' (impossible). It just reminds me a bit of DJ Food's 'Recipe for Disaster'. I would think a rock-crit description could be along the lines of Mantronix doing a megamix with Art of Noise.

The way each song flows into the next (what brilliant editing!), I'm sure it works much better as a whole. This is not a record for the Napster freaks, I don't think. So anyone who has heard a track or two and is on the fence should take the plunge.

That luminarioes say he's great? well that just shows I'm a shallow person influenced by what other people say rather than what I hear.

That he's Australian? that my shallowness extends to the lowest most destructive emotion, patriotism,

That I am seeing him live in few weeks? that my general shallowness inevitably leads to the conclusion that I will have to see him live in the next few weeks (along with the Mad Professor).

Bring it on

That's from a t-shirt they sell on their website.

their supposed to be working on the new record now. who knows when it'll see the light of day. i doubt it would be before late 2004.

I'm not ready to say I hate this record, but there are too many generic electronica moments. I like Wildflower much more, for sure.

Title track just seems like an awkward childish pastiche of sounds. Distasteful

It makes me just want to listen to The Roches.

I was watching a fantano video a few weeks ago in which his followers sent him their favorite albums of all time and found it surprising that Wildflower was in several lists. I knew it was well regarded, but saying it’s a “best of all time” album seems excessive. It’s not even the best album of 2016.

To each their own.

I still agree that Dj Koze’s Amygdala and Knock Knock are comparable and possibly better albums.

Most of it is ok for background music, and has a dreamlike flow which I like, but I agree that it has many distasteful decisions thrown in there.

listening now, finally. this is basically a gorillaz album.

a tasteful one, though, with a more interesting array of collaborators.

I'm not feeling it... yet.

makes me wish they did a proper disco album and an ambient album

man this record is awesome

listening now, finally. this is basically a gorillaz album.

― la table sur la table (voodoo chili),

Yeah, I came here to post that this is basically my favourite Gorillaz album.

i remain suspicious of jamie xx but "wherever you go" -> "music makes me high" is my favorite part of this record, total euphoria

i also really enjoyed wildflower though, the avalanches are good

Wildflower had some really amazing songs. I don’t hate this one but nothing in it shines for me in the same way that Colours, If I was a folkstar, subways, because I’m me, stepkids... all did.

Maybe I need to listen to it in a different frame of mind. This year I’m not feeling this one.

this one feels more like a DJ mix of original music than an album of songs

i was hoping to hear something on the album that would top the tracks released pre-album, the experience i had with both SILO and wildflower.
not the case with WWALY, "red lights" and "music makes me high" remain the highlights, the latter grew on me a lot.
such pure joy. i want a full album of that.

There had better be an extended 12” mix of “Music Gets Me High,” criminal if not.

Interview mainly on the technical details of making the new album: https://www.musictech.net/features/interviews/the-avalanches-we-will-always-love-you/

They've finally moved to working in Pro Tools, and Andy from Midnight Juggies made the band (back) into a trio for this entire LP.

Just been listening to this the last few days, it's real nice. The back half especially is a nice continual flow, with some good hooks. Like, from "We Go On" onward. The front is good too, but more song-by-song variability.

For folks who preferred Gimix to Since I Left You, here's a radio promo mix for We Will Always Love You, featuring about 1/3 of the album's songs mixed with inspirations, collaborators and sample sources.

yknow I think the only thing I don’t approve of on gimmix is when they play more of the kid creole song. that sample rocks, tho

used to think “turning the drum upside down” was slang for like a really awesome dance party

From 1997, an interview and live footage from just after Dexter joined the band.

(Skip to 16.40 if timed link doesn't work.)

This album is wayyyyyy better than I was expecting. Since I Left You 2020. They really capitalized on the guest spots relative to the last one, which had some great songs but never gelled for me as an album.

A 1999 mini-documentary, from a series produced for high school art students, about the making of Since I Left You. Some baby faces and good laughs in here, like Pav urging them to turn down a film soundtrack commission that Darren argues "would only take us a week."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V0Rby9jL0A

World tour on sale now!

Interview with Tony:

During the making of Wildflower we kind of got bogged down in an over-processed way of making music. We had so many samples that’d we’d catalogue into different folders and it became almost like some type of administrative way of making music. We’d have to cross reference numbers with the samples we’d catalogued, it was so time consuming and really just took away from the pure creativity of making music.

However, without the ability to use guests live:

This time we’re thinking it’ll be just a two man show just with Robbie and myself, and take it back to the art of sampling and how the music is made. We want to deconstruct the songs and build them back up, revealing the layers that make the song. Of course, our main objective is to always try and bring and party. After such a hard year for humanity as a whole, it’ll be so exciting just to go out there and try and make the fans — and ourselves — have the best time ever!

Some sort of 20th Anniversary release?

Making Since I Left You: Our debut album was a labour of love and we remain very proud of its legacy. It was a pure expression of heartache and joy.

Tune in tomorrow for some Since I Left You news .. 🌊 🚣‍♀️

Photograph by Gen Kay pic.twitter.com/Mi0GvCbpjq

— The Avalanches (@TheAvalanches) April 7, 2021

lol is the deluxe remaster finally going to come out after all this time

announced 10 years ago for its 10th anniversary and maybe finally here for the 20th...?

lol that's what it is!

the LP version has the same tracklist as the 2017 pressing of it that leaked out last year but the CD version has more tracks on its second disc. wonder what the hold-up was all this time?

1. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (MF DOOM Remix)
2. Summer Crane (Black Dice Remix)
3. Frontier Psychiatrist (Mario Caldato Jr's 85% Remix)
4. Electricity (Dr. Rockit's Dirty Kiss Remix)
5. Electricity (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
6. Thank You Caroline (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
7. Thank You Caroline (Andy Votel Remix)
8. So Why So Sad (The Avalanches Sean Penn Mix)
9. The Shining (The Avalanches Good Word For The Weekend Mix)
10. Pablo's Cruise (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
11. I'm A Cuckoo (The Avalanches Remix)
12. Chico (The Avalanches Wernham Hogg Mix)
13. Fade Together (The Avalanches Remix)
14. Since I Left You (Stereolab Remix)
15. Flight Tonight (Canyons Travel Agent Dub)
16. Radio (Sinkane Remix)
17. A Different Feeling (Ernest Saint Laurent Remix)
18. A Different Feeling (Carl Craig's Paperclip People Remix)
19. Two Hearts In 3/4 Time (Jackson & His Computer Band Remix)
20. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Dragged By Leon Vynehall)
21. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Edan Remix)

the 2nd CD tracklist is different because it's a dj mix, from the email:

For fans of the CD format, it comes with a bonus mix CD that we made especially for you, a journey through the flotsam and jetsam that has been floating around in the vaults for years.

and in the description:

A 21 TRACK EXCLUSIVE MIX, INCLUDING 8 UNRELEASED TRACKS + AVALANCHES REMIXES OF THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS, BADLY DRAWN BOY, BELLE & SEBASTIAN AND FRANZ FERDINAND

weird that the digital version says "US customers" only, it didn't say anything when i paid, even though i'm in canada.
regardless, holy shit!! i think i only heard 3 of the remixes. can't wait.

[announced 10 years ago for its 10th anniversary and maybe finally here for the 20th...?

ahem :)

As of today we're exactly four weeks from the 20th anniversary of Since I Left You, and they still haven't finalised the release date for the 10th anniversary deluxe reissue, or announced details of the super-deluxe package versions.

― edited for dog profanity (sic), Friday, October 30, 2020 6:40 PM (five months ago)

here's that post about the 2017 pressing: The Avalanches

re-annotating the tracklist - bold/italic new for the LP, just bold new & exclusive to the CD, asterisked old but not on the LP

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

on the 4xLP but not on the CD:

LP3-1. Since I Left You (Cornelius Remix)
LP3-4. Close To You (Sun Araw Remix)
LP4-1. Since I Left You (Prince Paul Remix)
LP4-2. Electricity (Harvey's Nightclub Re-edit)
LP4-4. Extra Kings (Deakin Remix)

the Jackson remix was announced for the 11th-anniversary reissue but not included in 2017. the El Guincho remix is still missing in action, but maybe we have everything else done in 2011 now planned (again)? good to see the release and the sequencing are still a complete shambles though.

had to search Fade Together, I don't remember that one at all.

the 2nd CD tracklist is different because it's a dj mix, from the email:

haaaa, of course they still can't release everything from the tenth anniversary edition, 21 years on.

Vinyl is already gone, with scalpers listing it for $250 on ebay. Fuckin sucks man

More world tour dates: performing Since I Left You live with a symphony orchestra at an arts festival in Adelaide in July.

Following this, Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi will appear in conversation with revered artist Jonathan Zawada at UniSA's City West campus.

They will then team up with artists Michaela Gleave and Fausto Brusamolino for "Messages of Hope, Messages of Love" a visual poem that will light up Adelaide CBD skies across four nights.

They will also be part of another visual experience, "Ghost Stories", which will see the band present work from Zawada and The Experience Machine that influenced their brilliant 2020 album We Will Always Love You.

Finally, the duo will close out the festival, headlining a massive block party with a DJ set on its final night.

looks like vinyl is back in stock.

“Because I’m me” is my jam

Bought the vinyl although i’m not sure if I need the remixes.

Oh nice! Ordered for...way too much. But this is an album I've wanted to own on vinyl for AGES

.. and now CD is shown as sold out

But this is an album I've wanted to own on vinyl for AGES

You could have bought the 2004 reissue or the 2012 reissue or the 2016 reissue or the 2017 reissue for less :)

You're assuming I remember this desire consistently or at even remotely convenient times

Review of the first night of the two-man format WWALY live show.

Next world tour date is available anywhere in the world, and your ticket also gets you CHVRCHES, Phoebe Bridgers, Pond, King Gizzard &/Or The Lizard Wizard, Charli XCX, Kaytranada, The Chats and more

the remaster sounds a little different in places to me, not quite as cluttered and cloudy at times maybe? The vinyl packaging is beautiful. Simon Reynolds’ liner notes sum up a lot of what makes this album special to me.

New American tour dates on sale Friday:

February 17 9:30 Club Washington, D.C.
February 18 Terminal 5 New York, NY
February 19 Theatre Of Living Arts Philadelphia, PA
February 20 Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA
February 22 Phoenix Concert Theatre Toronto, CA
February 23 Majestic Theatre Detroit, MI
February 24 Metro Chicago IL
February 25 Varsity Theatre Minneapolis, MN
February 27 Gothic Theatre Englewood, CO
March 01 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, CA
March 02 Neptune Theatre Seattle, WA
March 03 Roseland Theatre Portland, OR
March 06 The Warfield San Francisco, CA

I might have to do that Warfield show, I never have seen them.

Live in 1999, uploaded to youtube from a fuzzy off-air VHS a year ago (three-song excerpt of a full set opens with Electricity, iirc before the 12" was out)

Live in 2021, a 50-min condensed set mixed and edited from three shows (at the same theatre) in between lockdowns. Unlisted link apparently made for the virtual festival above, might not last!

for a feel of what their shows were usually like, when Rap Fever starts in the 1999 video, switch over to this audience-shot pub take instead

https://www.turntablelab.com/products/the-avalanches-since-i-left-you-colored-vinyl-vinyl-2lp-turntable-lab-exclusive?aff=56059

haven’t listened to We Will Always Love You in a while, just didn’t have the right mood for it
and tonight it’s hitting just right