Performer Notes

This is a Hyper CD, which contains regular audio tracks and also provides a link to the artist's website with the help of an internet browser.
The Avalanches include: Antoinette Halloran, Sally Russell (vocals); Bobby C
(guitar, background vocals); Gordon McQuilten (piano, percussion); James De La Cruz (turntables).
Engineers include: The Avalanches, Bobby Dazzler, Tony Espie.
Principally recorded at Soflight, Wow Sound Studios, Melbourne, Australia.
The creation of dark and spectral soundscapes seems almost de rigueur for electronica artists. Not so for the Avalanches, a six-member DJ ensemble from Australia. In fact, the group's debut, SINCE I LEFT YOU, was the most feel-good slab of sample-centered electronica to come down the pike in ages. Though tied to house, trance, and other styles of the postmodern DJ tradition, this album presents a sense of openness, naivete, and promise. Familiar dance samples, childlike voices, choral refrains, funky breaks, and a gentle, oddly soothing avant-garde clutter are dominant here.
In no way is the record simple-minded, however. The Avalanches construct dense sonic tapestries; between the simultaneous beats, multiple samples, vocal clips, and flourishes of live instrumentation, it is difficult to discern where the band's meticulous architecture leaves off and the sparkling aural dream begins. In an age where "everything's been done," and the most interesting artistic forms stem from recombining pre-existing snippets of culture, the appearance of an album that makes something bright and hopeful from that same aesthetic is both startling and welcome.

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (11/22/01, pp.86,89) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...As sunny as an Australian summer, harnessing a wide range of music...with the new toy joy of early sampling-based rap and a dance-music sensibility....true talent."

Spin - "The densely layered cornucopia of dazzle (a thousand samples from hundreds of records) is the end product of 18 months spent combing Australian thrift stores for used vinyl."

Entertainment Weekly (11/9/01, p.111) - "...A restless, ever-morphing collage of R&B, pop, and rock samples....exhilarating..." - Rating: B

Alternative Press (2/02, p.74) - 8 out of 10 - "...A kaleidoscopically surreal groove machine with a heart..."

CMJ (11-12/01, p.71) - "...Headphone nirvana..."

Album: Since I Left You [LP]
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Since I Left You
2)	Stay Another Season
3)	Radio
4)	Two Hearts in 3/4 Tim
5)	Avalanche Rock
6)	Flight Tonight
7)	Close to You
8)	Diners Only
9)	Different Feeling, A
10)	Electricity
11)	Tonight May Have to Last Me All My Life
12)	Pablo's Cruise
13)	Frontier Psychiatrist
14)	Etoh
15)	Summer Crane
16)	Little Journey
17)	Live at Dominoes
18)	Extra Kings

Album: Since I Left You [LP]
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Since I Left You
2)	Stay Another Season
3)	Radio
4)	Two Hearts in 3/4 Tim
5)	Avalanche Rock
6)	Flight Tonight
7)	Close to You
8)	Diners Only
9)	Different Feeling, A
10)	Electricity
11)	Tonight May Have to Last Me All My Life
12)	Pablo's Cruise
13)	Frontier Psychiatrist
14)	Etoh
15)	Summer Crane
16)	Little Journey
17)	Live at Dominoes
18)	Extra Kings