Avalanches - Since I Left You

  by David McNamee

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

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It starts like this; a snap of the fingers, a spotlight picking out the silhouette of a lone figure on the dancefloor of an abandoned discotheque and from out of nowhere ‘Since I Left You’ crashes in like Steps worst nightmare. "Since I left yoou.. I found the world soo new…" Tears are tattooed in, handbags are on the floor, platforms rival small skyscrapers and at the end of the night we’re lowering Gloria Gaynor from the ceiling and using her as a piñata. Survive this, Miss Thing! The Avalanches’ two years in the making debut album - painstakingly sewn together with 3,849,480 samples (I’ve counted them), 648 of which are ‘Holiday’ by Madonna – is currently attracting so much hype that they’re about six months away from becoming a cliché. So all I’ll say is that they’re Australian. And it’s a bit like 'Muriel’s Wedding', only Muriel’s a 7ft truck driver in drag answering to the name of Arthurina. Even the encyclopaedic barrage of sampladelic old vinyl doesn’t stop the funky funky funky stuff from sticking a stiletto in your windpipe and shimmying all over your face. In its most disco drunk moments ‘Since I Left You’ resembles a Jackson 5 being zapped into postmodernity by a great flashy disco time warp bazooka. Which basically means it rounds up every dancefloor filler classic from Chic to Stardust and sucks their souls. Remember megamixes? The most reviled late eighties marketing format since A&R men were hatched? The Avalanches have taken that cool principle and processed the best bit out of every genuinely cool song in the history of the world into a full length LP. There’s a subtext somewhere about travel, the search for love, learning, yearning and spraypainting bars with rainbow coloured vomit. Probably. By the time we reach ‘A Different Feeling’ we’re in Monaco with a transvestite’s immaculately Immac-ed leg draped over one thigh, a martini in one hand and a Nokia 3010 in the other. Yeah, ok. So it’s Jive Bunny. But it’s Jive Bunny guzzling Benzedrine ‘n Hooch, throwing it’s arms around you and going “You’re my beshtest mate. I LOVE ya ! Loooooovee yoooou!!” Now That’s What I Call Hot Ladyboy Lovin’ Vol. 69!

Track Listing:-

1 Since I Left You
2 Stay Another Season
3 Radio
4 Two Hearts In 3/4 Time
5 Avalanche Rock
6 Flight Tonight
7 Close To You
8 Diners Only
9 A Different Feeling
10 Electricity
11 Tonight
12 Pablo's Cruise
13 Frontier Psychiatrist
14 Ethoh
15 Summer Crain
16 Little Journey
17 Live At Dominoes
18 Extra Kings

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