Music Reviews
The Avalanches
Since I Left You
(WEA/LONDON/SIRE)
With outfits like Air having successfully dug into the vintage bins
of our collective unconscious, it was only a matter of time before someone
came along and tried to wean a more obvious statement out of influence.
Indeed, the Avalanches' "Since I Left You" arrives like a fragmented paean
to anyone who has ever recorded a hit R&B single. The cut and paste
effort of this Australian-based sextet has captured the minds and ears
of the already-bored-with-it set on more than a few shores. How eager we
are for the new. (Or is it the old?)
To put it more bluntly: What could have been a soggy wrestling match
of an album has emerged as a sound-collage that is surprisingly engaging.
Using approximately 600 samples of old chart hits culled from second-hand
record collections, the Avalanches combines turntableism and genre cross-breeding
to build a unique presence. I'm enjoying the hell out of this album, although
I'm still trying to figure out what to call it.
The title track, Since I Left You, sounds like the re-birth of a Jackson
Five B-side filtered through warring sequencers. Additional tracks bleed
into one another here and there without shame, lending a comical attentiveness
to the whole project. A real eyebrow raiser is the bassline sample from
Madonna's "Holiday;" apparently this is the first time shes ever "allowed"
such a thing. These guys have obviously built some clout along the way.
Just when you think there can't be anymore genre bending, someone hits
you over the head with a new category. Perhaps this six-man oddity should
be filed under "Poolside Eclectic." That might work, until a sudden, explosive
burst of hip-hop makes you spill your drink. - Jonathan Hanemann
