The Avalanches - Since I Left You

"Get a drink, have a good time now, welcome to paradise." A very fitting way to begin an album such as 'Since I Left You', a masterpiece which takes the listener on a journey through various weird and wonderful atmospheres. The most obvious aspect of The Avalanches' debut album is the colossal number of samples used, which act as an instrument themselves, often blending with the dancey, electronic instrumentation. However, the majority of the 900 individual samples used are so utterly bizarre and unique: think parrots, horses, a Rastafarian singer. The unique nature of these sounds are what make the album so special - when it was released in 2001, it was like nothing heard before. The unfamiliarity and strangeness works perfectly. The Australian party ensemble haven’t simply thrown loads of samples randomly within the album - they have been so intricately placed and edited in a way which makes you wonder, “how on earth did they do that?”

Greater than the sum of its parts, 'Since I Left You' is a clever assemblage of sound samples (mostly obscure and sometimes well-known - 'Holiday' by Madonna) that create positive vibes that are at once familiar and catchy, yet strangely new and slightly lysergic (many of the tracks bleeding into one another in a continuous mix). It encompasses a variety of styles including the Hip Hop of 'Flight Tonight', the twisted Funk of 'Radio', Disco in 'A different Feeling', the humorous/novelty quality of hit 'Frontier Psychiatrist' and the nostalgic/ghostly eeriness (with vinyl crackle deliberately left in) of 'Tonight'.

What comes across is the joy of discovery that main-men Darren Seltman, Robbie Chater had as audio archaeologists/engineers in unearthing and welding together all these diverse sounds in such a successful way.