If you’ve been to Splendour In The Grass before, chances are you might have been lucky enough to have attended one of the legendary pre-parties at Byron Bay’s institutional The Northern.
Just announced today, this year’s edition promises to be quite possibly the largest in pre-party history, with homecoming heroes The Avalanches set to headline the event. The trio have just released Wildflower (read our review), their first record since Since I Left You a whopping 16 years ago, and Splendour In The Grass marks their triumphant return to the stage.
With their headline slot at Splendour having previously been their only Australian show this year, you can expect The Northern to be an absolute sardine tin as people try and catch them.
Joining The Avalanches on the night will be power duo and another huge name in The Kills. They too have a brand new album out in the rollicking Ash And Ice to unleash upon their many Australian fans, the first time they’ve seen them in five years.
Perth trio Methyl Ethyl are on the bill as well. Fresh home off a jaunt in Europe and with their star shooting skyward off the back of their debut LP Oh Inhuman Spectacle and its massive singles Rogue and Twilight Driving, expect a blinder of a reception for one of Australia’s best young bands when they take to the stage.
Rounding out the onstage talent will be the Prince-endorsed Harts out of Melbourne. Insanely talented on each one of the many instruments he’s capable of playing, he’ll be turning the classic funk vibes all the way up.
With a DJ set from Melbourne duo Kllo in there as well, the 2016 Official Splendour In The Grass Pre Party is looking absolutely off the wall. As you can imagine given all this talent squeezed into one limited capacity venue, tickets are going to sell out like crack-flavoured hotcakes.
If you want in to this extravaganza then you’ll need to have your fingers hovering over your keyboards for either presale tickets available this Wednesday at 9am or general tickets, on sale Thursday from 9am as well. Head to secretsoundstouring.com for more information.
If you’re in Brisbane and can’t make it to Byron then you’re covered as well, tickets to the after party at The Triffid (featuring Years And Years, Lido, Moonbase Commander and Twinsy) are on sale now.
Splendour in the Grass is taking place from Friday July 22 – Sunday July 24. Full details can be found here.
Image: Supplied
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).
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p7Nib6yJ6o]
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 Folkstar, Mercury Rev‘s Jonathan Donahue works it on the dreamy Colours as well as Harmony and title track Wildflower, Biz 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
After 16 years, last week (exclusively via Apple Music) we were finally in possession of The Avalanches‘ new album, their second since 2000’s Since I Left You, leaving many of us feeling incredibly old. Many more wondered if it would ever appear after such a long and frustrating wait.
Robbie Chater, one of the three multi-instrumentalists from the group, elaborated in an interview with Pitchfork the reasons behind such a lengthy period between albums. In the mid-2000s he was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease which played a large part in the delay of Wildflower. “There were three years in the mid-2000s when I was really unwell. I was diagnosed with a couple of separate autoimmune diseases, so I was out of action,” he stated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjfspM5sDIA
The news comes as a shock to fans of The Avalanches, a group notorious for playing their cards incredibly close to their chests. Autoimmune diseases mean the body responds in an abnormal manner to substances and tissues that are normally present within it, meaning they come in many forms.
Chater also mentioned that perfectionism and sample clearance had a lot to do with the delay as well, “As far as samples, they started clearing stuff years ago, but then there would be some hold-up and they’d have to go back and renegotiate.” Chater said. “People would give permission for us to use the sample, and then a certain amount of time would elapse and they would Google who the band is and be like, ‘Oh shit, I can ask for more money?’ That sort of thing took forever.”
We wish Chater all the best and hope that the disease doesn’t continue to hold him back. Be sure to grab a copy of Wildflower this Friday, July 8 or stream it via our review here.
Image: Imgur
Admittedly the utopian promise of a follow up to The Avalanches‘ Since I Left You seemed a little too good to be true.
With radio hype, a killer promotional video and the seldom flexed muscles of major label marketing pushing the album, sceptics could be forgiven for their apprehension. The presence of MF Doom and Danny Brown on leading single Frankie Sinatra seemed a logical introduction to a new generation of music fans, but for many the track was a lacking, especially after a decade-plus wait.
Colours revealed more of what was to come but did little to allay concerns that Wildflower might fall too deeply into the shadow cast by the ambrosial sampladelica of its forebear. Subways’ call-backs re-invoked the delirious dreamscape of its antecedent but teased the distressing prospect of a rehash.
Yet after 16 years of speculation, The Avalanches have more than made good on their promise of a worthy follow-up. There’s no shortage of excellent material on the album and by the time fifth track Going Home rolls around, its swinging dance pulse and the warmly nostalgic sampladelica sees the album hit its stride.
The density of Since I Left You is retained and the lovingly crafted sonic collage returns. If I Was A Folk Singer and Harmony completely dissolve any misgivings that this second outing is anything but worthwhile. With blissful hip-hop rhythms and ambient production, they bridge a 16-year gap without a modicum of effort.
Yet it’s the overtly psychedelic forays of the album’s B-side which cements its status. The raga interlude of Park Music bridges into the floating dreamscape of Livin’ Underwater (Is Something Wild). While the album may not lead off as strongly as Since I Left You, there’s little question that by the time this acid-dazed narrative reaches a close that Wildflower achieves the otherworldly sonic cohesion of The Avalanches’ signature sound. Despite the saturation of lovingly borrowed sounds, there’s a balance between nostalgia and novelty which other sampling-heavy productions either struggle to achieve or miss completely.
Continuing to delve into the depths of crate-diving obscurity Sunshine reimagines the vocals Leave It All Behind Me by obscure ’70s trio The Fuzz into hypnotic orchestral swirls. Lightup’s waltzing doo-wop ushers in the climactic euphoria of Kaleidoscopic Lovers, pushing the giddying heights of dreamlike fantasy. Stepkids returns to earth with an invitingly off-kilter sing-along. A lavish recreation psyche-folk sensibility, it’s perhaps the only time Dirty Three founder and Nick Cave collaborator Warren Ellis might find himself alongside Royal Trux‘ Jennifer Herrema.
The terms ‘mix-up’ and ‘plunderphonics’ often connote nightmarish visions of mismatched sound, but here The Avalanches challenge these notions to the core. This artful soundscaping couldn’t be further to the contrary. As with Since I Left You before, Wildflower weaves an all-enveloping sonic reality of its very own.
There’s little question that this time around the group have been experimenting with more prominent vocal contributions, but tracks like Zap! are reminders of an underpinning textural oddness which defines the group’s sound. Detuned brass melodies sinking into the oceanic nostalgia demonstrate that it’s this proclivity for depth and subtlety that drives this music. The Noisey Eater and Wildflower verge on becoming jarringly absurdist at first instance, but there’s a grandiose irreverence to the songs that may yet match Frontier Psychiatrist.
The unanticipated impact and novelty of Since I Left You may not be here this time around and 16 years of legend may not have been woven around this album, but the ambrosial production, mosaic of sonic elements and The Avalanches’ distinctive approach to sample-based music speak for themselves.
By the time the expansive ambience of Saturday Night Inside Out (featuring a shamanistic recital by Father John Misty’s J. Tillman) draws to a close, this album will have even the most ardent holdouts on board. The disparate array of the album’s sampling will be preying on the minds of obsessives for years to come.
You can stream Wildflower in its entirety on Apple Music now.
Wildflower is out now on Modular, Astralwerks, XL and EMI. Catch The Avalanches at their only Australian show at this year’s Splendour In The Grass.
Image: Imgur
The Avalanches are back in full force. A full sixteen years since their groundbreaking debut Since I Left You, the Australian duo have already unveiled three new tracks from their forthcoming sophomore album Wildflower. The first, Frankie Sinatra, featured Danny Brown and MF DOOM, while last week we heard Colours featuring Mercury Rev frontman Jonathan Donahue.
Subways features samples from Chandra‘s track of the same name, as well as a Graham Bonnet cover of The Bee Gees‘ Warm Ride. Each track we’ve heard so far has been really different, showing that we can look forward to something really diverse when the album drops next month. Subways has a really relaxed, laid back vibe, with the glistening samples backed by a bouncy bass and simple beat. Like Colours, as with much of Since I Left You, it feels like a partial snippet, that may not scream out to you as a standalone single, but in the context of a whole album will undoubtedly flow perfectly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpy400TrIjE&lf=0ce6aaf385f7557f87a842febed142c7
The Avalanches recently played their first show in almost as long – click here to watch their entire set from Barcelona’s Primavera Festival. Lucky Australian punters will be able to catch them live at Splendour in the Grass, and we can only assume a full tour will be announced in the months following.
In the lead up to the release of their upcoming album Wildflower (out July 8) and a tour (featuring an Australian show at Splendour In The Grass), The Avalanches have made their live return at Primavera Sound in Barcelona. It featured the live debuts of a few new songs, including Frankie Sinatra and Subways (which was teased through a hotline). There has already been footage of the show surfacing online, but now the band has seen fit to release the full audio from the set on Mixcloud. Because they are just that nice.
They also shared a funny little anecdote about the mix, and how it was almost a disaster. In a collection of tweets the band recounted the story of how they “pulled [the mix] together an hour before showtime.” Apparently they had a few visa issues that caused them to abandon their live-show hopes. They also gave a shoutout to Jamie xx, who provided them with the acapella for Good Times.
Pulled this together an hour before showtime after visa fuckups nixed our live show plans.Thank fuck we had our vinyl with us.
— The Avalanches (@TheAvalanches) June 15, 2016
Big thanks to Jamie xx who came through for us with the 'good times' acapella at the last moment! We wont forget your kindness primavera! x
— The Avalanches (@TheAvalanches) June 15, 2016
The band was also quoted as saying “mixing is ruff as fuck” when talking about the live audio, “but that’s the way we roll. None of this Ableton bullshit, this is punk rock kids!”
Give the mix a listen below, and enjoy the good beats.
But if that wasn’t enough of The Avalanches for one day (let’s face it, is there such a thing as too much of these guys?) they also previewed a new song on Beats 1 earlier today. The track, titled Colours featured Jonathan Donohue of Mercury Rev, and for now you can listen to the whole thing here (skip to the 1 minute mark).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKiP-Q56zIw
Image: Twitter
Happy Avalanches day, everyone! After sixteen long years, the wait is finally over.
After premiering their new track Frankie Sinatra featuring Danny Brown and MF DOOM, and giving Zane Lowe an in-depth exclusive interview about their upcoming album, they have now released the video for Frankie Sinatra, from their forthcoming sophomore album Wildflower, due out on July 8, 2016.
It’s very weird. Like, very weird. A psychedelic trip from hell, watch as a seemingly innocent fluorescent green substance, sold at Frankie’s Ice Cream. Men, women and children suddenly begin to trip the fuck out. All hell breaks loose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjfspM5sDIA&lf=c668e870c5dc4d35b488ed6a34d4acfa
It gets more and more violent as it continues, with hallucinations getting more extreme – not just for the characters, but we begin to see what they see. The characters make more sense now, with both Brown and DOOM essentially describing how many substances they’ve consumed and exactly what’s happening to them now.
The Sound of Music breakdown becomes particularly feathery and sexual, before we’re drawn back into the hallucinatory nightmare of a carnival gone wrong.
A shot pans out, revealing that everyone is passed out. The song again changes as law enforcement arrive to assess the situation, before ending on a shot of an old man peacefully strumming a guitar.
Wow. I have no idea what just happened. but I can only hope that The Avalanches are going by way of Beyonce and Nick Cave in releasing visuals for their whole album, because I want more of that.
Click here for more details on the album including track listing, collaborators and exactly what they were getting up to for the past 16 years.
Image: Youtube
THIS IS NOT A DRILL. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
It’s been sixteen years. Sixteen long, laboriously years. Sixteen years of rumours, hints, supposed recording sessions, hinted collaborations, confirmed – and then cancelled – release dates, interview snippets and about a thousand more rumours, The Avalanches are back. They’ve released a new song and have unveiled many, many details about their new album, titled Wildflower, as well as where they’ve been hiding and what they’ve been doing for the past sixteen years.
Let that sink in for a moment.
The Avalanches Have Released A New Song. And Their New Album Is Finished.
The track, which received its world premiere on Triple J and was immediately followed up on Apple Music is called Frankie Sinatra. The bouncy, 1920s-style, clarinet-laden carnival of a track, which includes an incredible bridge by way of The Sound of Music, also features verses from our mate Danny Brown and the legendary MF DOOM, perhaps the only artist more secretive than The Avalanches. I may not be a fan of Brown’s antics of late, but I gotta say, both artists well and truly deliver.
The news followed this morning’s reveal from Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, who announced that he would be interviewing the band on Beats 1 Radio. Last month, the band unveiled a mysterious teaser video, and of course, the fact that they are headlining Splendour in the Grass and a few other festivals implied that something was bubbling and brewing away. I almost can’t believe that it’s finally here, sixteen long years since 2000’s groundbreaking Since I Left You.
The song premiere was immediately followed by a detailed interview with Zane Lowe and both Robbie Chater and Tony Di Basi.
Here’s what we know: It’s 21 tracks long, it’s called Wildflower. It’s out on July 8 2016. Check out the track list below.
Frankie Sinatra is one of the older tracks that they worked on, having found its sampled backbone years ago while DJing in Melbourne. It is one of two tracks featuring Brown – “We wanted [the record] to be a bit more loose and rock ‘n roll,” they said. “Danny’s voice is almost a punk rock voice.”
“We wanted to get the record out as quickly as possible,” they continued. So… what happened? Why the hold up? “Well, for us, we kept making music… but there was so much of it and so many different projects going on, at a certain point we realised we need to pull an Avalanches record together….” They continued to detail the many projects they’d worked on, including films and an animation project “like a hip-hop version of The Beatles‘ Yellow Submarine,” and so on.
At some point between three and five years ago they began to book time in studio to commit to finishing it. They went on to talk about how they’re preparing both for full live shows and DJ shows, and the band members and their roles – including Darren Seltmann, who was considered the frontman, but wasn’t really, and officially left the group last year.
— The Avalanches (@TheAvalanches) June 2, 2016
Collaborators: Camp Lo, legendary hip-hop duo and Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev features on a track called Colours. Biz Markie and Jean-Michel Bernard featured on a track together too. Father John Misty will reportedly be heard doing a lot of floaty “Beach Boys-esque” harmonies, and other guests include the amazing Warren Ellis (of Dirty Three and Nick Cave,) and Toro Y Moi, who will apparently be singing about taking LSD on a beach with his wife.
Here’s the artwork. It’s an actual flag – “we didn’t’ do it digitally and photographed it. Actually a lady in Nebraska made the flag she’s the World Quitting champion. We only get the best in Avalanches!”
Lowe, who has heard the record, also described it as distinctly Australian, saying that it felt like long, coastal drives through the country. I’ll be honest – Frankie Sinatra does not exactly sound Australian (nor does it sound like anything in particular), but I suppose we’ll see how the entire thing sounds once it’s out.
Also, there’s a tonne of additional songs that didn’t make it onto the album – these will hopefully be getting released within a year following the record (so in Avalanches time that’s probably 10-15 years).
Listen here:
Here’s the track list:
1. The Leaves Were Falling
2. Because I’m Me
3. Frankie Sinatra
4. Subways
5. Going Home
6. If I Was a Folkstar
7. Colours
8. Zap!
9. The Noisy Eater
10. Wildflower
11. Harmony
12. Live a Lifetime Love
13. Park Music
14. Livin’ Underwater (Is Somethin’ Wild)
15. The Wozard of Iz
16. Over the Turnstiles
17. Sunshine
18. Light Up
19. Kaleidoscopic Lovers
20. Stepkids
21. Saturday Night Inside Out
22. Frankie Sinatra (Extended Mix)
Currently these are the only Avalanches tour dates, but I am assuming more are coming, considering how much they spoke about preparing to play live.
The Avalanches 2016 Tour Dates:
June 3: Barcelona, ES – Primavera Sound
June 9: London, UK – Oval Space
June 12: London, UK – Field Day
July 22-24 Byron Bay, AU – Splendour in the Grass
July 24: Nigata, Japan – Fuji Rock
Image: The Avalanches
Fans of The Avalanches rejoice: the wait is over.
Well, almost.
The frustratingly elusive collective have been dropping some pretty telling hints for a while now that their second album is on the way, but nothing concrete has actually dropped. Now, it seems they’re finally just about ready to share what they’ve been up to all these years.
Posters have been popping up in the UK and US that look suspiciously like they’re promoting the band’s Since They Left Us documentary. As Redditors have pointed out, though, something feels a little off. The documentary trailer dropped last week to much excitement, but there’s a fair amount of skepticism as to whether there even really is a documentary at all, or whether this is all just a very clever marketing tactic to get everyone keen for the album (it’s working). Like we needed any more encouragement on that front.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=NAMPOAfdH8U
Most importantly, though, the posters indicate that “preview screenings” for the “documentary” are available by calling +44 800 098 8938 (UK), or (855) 953-3597 (US). Anyone who calls through is treated to a very low-quality loop of a song that Shazam indicates is called ‘Subways’. You can listen to the loop here if you’re not keen on paying international charges.
The Avalanches have made countless promises about new music being imminent, it really seems they’re going to make good on their words this time. And with their Splendour in the Grass appearance just around the corner, it’s seeming more and more likely that we’ll get that long-awaited second album before they make their first live Australian appearance in 15 years.
Words by Liz Ansley
Image: FACT
It’s already been confirmed that they’re returning for some performances, and it’s been implied that there is new music on the way (music that they’ve been working on for over a decade apparently), but now another piece of the unsolvable puzzle that is The Avalanches‘ next move has come forward in the form of a trailer.
Titled Since They Left Us, the mysterious video appeared online this morning and features a timeline of sorts through the history of the band since the release of their debut, last and only album, Since I Left You. The documentary style video also features the likes of Ariel Pink, Kirin J Callinan, Danny Brown and Father John Misty as well as Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux, who all provide more info about the record (although Callinan and Misty both do it in their own particular ways).
The soundtrack of familiar tunes by them may lull you into a false sense of security, but keep your ears ready for around the 1:22 minute mark, as there is definitely some new sounds going on there.
Of course, as with everything to do with these guys, this just raises more question than it answers. Is something coming? Maybe. Are they just teasing us like they did back in 2010, 2013 and other times? Who knows. But what is certain is that there is at least something happening, and with the announcement that they will be regrouping for Splendour In The Grass later this year, we have every extremity and limb crossed that finally a new Avalanches record may be out in the world soon. But then again, you just never know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAMPOAfdH8U
Image: Noisey