TheAvalanchesSteveGullick

The Avalanches Take You Through “Wildflower” Sample By Sample

Oh, The Avalanches. Their elusive second album had all but become a matter of urban myth until very recently. Now Wildflower is about to finally be released, and the question on everyone’s lips is whether or not it lives up to the hype. It’s certainly a brave new world the plunderphonics outfit have re-entered – electronic music is extremely different than what it was back in 2000. It seems The Avalanches are opting for hyper-transparency in the face of this, which is probably a smart move: they recently broke down the album by track, by feature and by sample for triple j.

There’s a lot to take in here, and the samples are predictably off-beat and quirky – from a 1950s home recording of a somniloquist (The Leaves Were Falling) to a 12 year old girl’s vocals from her No Wave 80s track (Subways) and lifts from a documentary about the devotee fans of the Insane Clown Possee (Live A Lifetime Love).

We’ve known for some time that there were going to be some massive names featuring on a few of the album’s tracks. And of course, a certain rapper along with MF Doom featured on polarising lead single Frankie Sinatra. Now though, we have the full run-down. Kevin Parker plays ‘additional drums’ on Going Home, Toro Y Moi, Jonti & A.Dd+ lend their talents to If I Was A FolkstarMercury Rev‘s Jonathan Donahue works it on the dreamy Colours as well as Harmony and title track WildflowerBiz Markie‘s on The Noisy Eater, the list goes on.

The article is peppered with direct quotes from The Avalanches’ Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi, and they’re all incredibly charming and intriguing. It’s easy to see they’re perfectionists, which is clearly one of the reasons why the followup to Since I Left You took so damn long:

[Tony Di Blasi on album closer Saturday Night Inside Out]: “The last song on the record,which is quite ironic because 16 years ago Robbie gave us all a mixtape of all the new little songs he’d been doing. This was the first song on that tape 16 years ago and it’s the last song on this record. It ties it all up very nicely.”

Wildflower is released this Friday 8 July, just in time for everyone to get super-acquainted with it prior to The Avalanches’ huge live comeback at Splendour in the Grass.

Read our review of Wildflower here

Image: Steve Gullick via triple j

More: Stream The Avalanches New Album ‘Wildflower’ NOW