by Andrés López

The Avalanches’ Since I Left You is one of those albums that you need to carve out time in your day for. Find a cozy nook, put on your best headphones, hit play, and listen carefully as the sampled Spanish guitars and chorus beckon you forward, and another sampled voice offers you some advice before the world opens up around you: “Get a drink/Have a good time now/Welcome to paradise…” Through the meticulous sampling of over 3,000 separate tracks, Robbie Chater and Darren Seltmann of The Avalanches stitch together brandnew songs from the pieces of others in a process known as plunderphonics (a drum beat here, a guitar riff there). The result is an hour of breathtaking, kaleidoscopic songs that segue into one another, taking the listener through an odyssey of shapeshifting sounds and spoken word interludes. From the peacefully drifting “Two Hearts in ¾ Time” to the funk of “Electricity”; from the sampled sketch comedy of “Frontier Psychiatrist” to the disco banger that is “Live at Dominos”, listening to this album is allowing yourself to get lost in the world The Avalanches have created.

THE AVALANCHES SINCE I LEFT YOU by IAN SMITH Editor