The Avalanches: Since I Left You (2LP) [ASTRALWERKS]

Why you'll love it

This gatefold 2LP set spreads the album's continuous, dreamy mix across four sides. It reached No. 8 in the UK, won four ARIA Awards, and ranks among the best-reviewed albums of the 2000s.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Gatefold jacket
• Stereo mix

About the album

Robbie Chater and Darren Seltmann made Since I Left You in two nearly identical studios in Melbourne, swapping tapes back and forth and building on each other's ideas. The raw material was a mountain of second-hand vinyl: Chater has put the number of samples at around 3,500, all stitched into one long, seamless trip. The pair credited the production to their alias Bobbydazzler, working mainly with a Yamaha mixing desk and Akai samplers.

The title track drifts in on strings and a lounge-singer hook and never quite lets go. "Frontier Psychiatrist" is a gloriously daft cut-up of old comedy records, horses and orchestras; "Electricity" glitters; "Radio" fizzes with disco; and "Pablo's Cruise," which gave the project its working title, glides along like a holiday postcard. It plays best start to finish, the way the pair intended. Four singles came from it, "Electricity" and "Frontier Psychiatrist" among them.

Clearing all those samples held up the international issue until 2001, and it took the group sixteen years to follow it up. Given how many records went into this one, we suspect they were simply waiting for the shops to restock.

Also at Kops: more The Avalanches on vinyl · browse Electronic

Tracklist

Listen

On Modular / Astralwerks (cat# 2557356977), a reissue of the 2000 album.