Hands up if you’re sick of waiting for the new album by The Avalanches?
Fourteen years is a long time to wait for anything, but when it comes to the music industry, that same stretch is a virtual eternity.
Never mind that since the release of Since I Left You that newborn babies have grown to become teenagers, or that three sets of Olympic Games have come and gone, by the barometer of the ever-changing modern music landscape there’s been umpteen revolutions since The Avalanches dropped their debut – and to date only – full-length album in 2000.
There’s certainly been bigger gaps between releases (take a bow, Eagles, Dexys, The Who et al.), but the painfully slow yet consistent drip-feed of information on The Avalanches’ fabled follow-up across time has elevated it to a mythical status to rival the über-delayed Chinese Democracy (and if you don’t get the outdated Guns N Roses reference, it only further serves to prove how bloody long it’s been)!
The mystic appeal of the epic wait is only further enhanced by the fact that the group themselves have been relatively inactive in the intervening years (aside from the odd DJ set or obscure mixtape release).
Unlike long-gestating releases that broached their relative silence with other distractions (touring, side-projects, break-ups), there’s always been just enough promise of a sequel to Since I Left You to tantalise, nor a long enough lack of presence to give up all hope (though understandably, some may have already).
Singing The Same Old Song
The latest shred of information – that The Avalanches lost one of their members, Darren Seltmann, along the way and is now officially a duo – perfectly illustrates the precarious active/inactive double-life that The Avalanches have lead in the last some-15 years.
The official word from Modular, the Sydney indie label that’s been the band’s home this whole time, is: “Album sounds awesome, but there’s no dates or anything planned. The official line is ‘stay tuned’.”
It’s almost the exact same party line Modular spun nearly a decade ago. A press release from the label back in 2006, issued following jokes that the Avalanches had been booted from Modular, according to Undercover.fm, noted: “It’s sounding like everything we dared not hope for, and so much more” plus “word is it’s not far off.”
Which is really another way of saying “it’s awesome – stay tuned.”
Here’s another variation on that rhetoric, taken from an interview conducted in September 2013 with Laneway Festival co-founder Danny Rogers: “I’ve heard people who’ve heard it and people were very positive about it.” Adding: “I’ve been waiting as long as you have… I’m hearing a very, very, very, very good rumour that it’s going to come out in [2014].” Which is really another way of saying “it’s awesome – stay tuned.”
Unfortunately, there’s been such “very, very, very, very good rumours” going as far back as 10 years – along with passing reports of guest collaborations with Ariel Pink (Pitchfork, 2010) and Danny Brown (also Pitchfork, 2012), and multiple “it’s finished” announcements only for nothing to materialise.
But with each touted release timeframe that fans curse and shake their fist at as it vanishes into vapour, there’s also been a number of obscure releases that keep the light of hope burning and the anticipation a’bubbling.
‘Stay Another Season’
In 2012, any and all things that ‘may or may not’ be music released by members of The Avalanches was a rare enough sighting in the music wild to get major music media’s panties tied into a knot (including Tone Deaf, guilty as charged).
The release of a mixtape in April 2012 called Sleepy Bedtime Mix For Young Ones, had Pitchfork excitingly proclaiming ‘Is This a New Mixtape From the Avalanches?’ after a link to the very Avalanches-esque mix was posted by the group on their own twitter.
Mess + Noise put the hysteria best when they pointed out that Sleepy Bedtime Mix… “was created under the alias Henry Chinaski, a Charles Bukowski pseudonym, which may or may not be used by Robbie Chater, who may or may not be in The Avalanches.”
The guessing games all the more frustrating given the website that hosted the release, Pinchy And Friends, is a blog “featuring mixes by an eclectic group of contributors from a variety of creative fields” that makes anonymity its number one virtue.
Another mild drop that caused major ripples came in August 2012, when a demo named ‘A Cowboy Overflow Of The Heart’ unceremoniously appeared online, showing distinctive shades of Since I Left You; later confirmed to be a collaboration between David Berman – the frontman of the defunct Silver Jews – and The Avalanches. Great, new music, but again no follow-through.
Last year provided a similar series of high anticipation followed by crushing disappointment. Exhibit A, a snatch of incidental music contributed to the King Kong stage musical. Exhibit B, an Hunters & Collectors remix for a Mushroom-branded tribute album.
The (admittedly pretty awesome) ‘Stalking To A Stranger’ re-work provided enough hysteria for Modular to have to confirm that the band were “100% still signed” to the label, but back-handedly pointed out that the Avalanches’ contribution to the Hunters & Collectors compilation album was “not new.”
Which after the ‘Avalanches now a duo’ titbit, brings us bang up to date – and really, none much the wiser on the status of the most mythical album in Aussie music history other than yes, it does exist, and according to those who claimed to have actually heard anything, it matches if not exceeds Since I Left You.
All in all, that’s really nothing more than a proverbial trail of breadcrumbs that’s been scattered over the years, and though increasing in the last 18 months, is never enough to truly satisfy.
Of all the recurring questions that frustratingly go unanswered (the most pertinent being ‘will a new album really see the light of day?’) there’s one that has a definitive response: ‘Do people still care about The Avalanches?’ Yes.
Since They Left Us
If there’s one constant to the decade-plus trajectory to a new LP – aside from the shreds of second-hand information and industry hearsay of “it’s awesome” – it’s that, for better or worse, the group’s legacy lives on with Since I Left You, and its lasting influence on music-makers.
Perpetuated most recently by the live tribute led by Sydney beatmaker Jonti at last year’s OutsideIn music festival, and rising hip hop hero Remi, and his Like A Version cover of Since I Left You’s title track.
Granted, a lot of The Avalanches debut’s lasting power is through the album entering the critical canon – firstly through 2000 year-end lists, and later through ‘Best Of’ hall of fames compiled by the same foggy-eyed writers and media dinosaurs that were actually still around in the stone age before iPods and Spotify when the album was released (NME, Pitchfork, Herald Sun, Slant, GQ, and so on).
As well as its historic status, Since I Left You’s importance as an Aussie icon is just as important to its deathless appeal; charting in the top ten of the industry ranked publication, The 100 Best Australian Albums and by the radio listening public in Triple J’s Hottest 100 Australian Albums Of All Time. Whatever Since I Left You absorbed from the more colourful end of hip-hop and collage-constructed electronic music, it gave back to the music world ten-fold in kind.
The one constant along with its critical adulation, is Since I Left You’s relevance. Elevating its cut and paste aesthetic of stitching together disparate samples both popular and desperately obscure into a glorious, textural celebration of music not only invented countless artists – both local and international – but also marked the point where the low-brow mashup turned a corner.
Whatever the record absorbed from the more colourful end of hip-hop and collage-constructed electronic music, it gave back to the music world ten-fold in kind.
Since I Left You arguably rose atop the rising tide of late 90s internet boffins clashing disparate elements together, before cresting a wave that acted as a pre-cursor to mashup maestros like Girl Talk and Ballarat’s own Yacht Club DJs (fitting then that the album sleeve depicts a painterly scene of figures tossed about on the ocean).
In short, it’s a great album that’s really stood against the test of time.
Give Since I Left You a spin today and its 60-ish glorious minutes is as potently contemporary yet timelessly classic as it was when it first graced ears, 14 years ago. But then that’s exactly the crux of the problem with a follow-up.
Worth The Wait Or Doomed To Disappoint?
Not only is a new album from The Avalanches got some mighty big shoes to fill, but the endless rumour-mongering and on-again, off-again hot air means it’s not just got to meet hugely lofty expectations, but exceed them. Talk about your ‘difficult second album syndrome’.
So while yes, people still genuinely want a new album from The Avalanches, how long dedicated fans will actually put up with the teasing is another, entirely more loaded question.
Should The Avalanches actually release their new album, it’s actually looking more and more likely to land with a disappointing thud.
But the happy ending in the tale of another legendary album gestation provides another more positive scenario.
My Bloody Valentine’s quasi-self-titled 2013 album m b v was 22 years in the making, breaking the iconic shoegaze group’s gap in releases since 1991’s culture-altering Loveless
When it was released without fare forewarning in February 2013, the independently released m b v not only sent My Bloody Valentine’s website into meltdown but ignited the internet with interest well beyond the sphere of those who had been patiently waiting over two decades.
But following its release, and several reunion tours and a few Best of 2013 rankings later, m b v didn’t really change the world, it just kind of proved that 22 years had done nothing to weather the band’s sound or, as some championed and others chided, change it. At the end of the day, it was only as earth-shattering as the baggage you brought to it.
It’s very likely that The Avalanches’ first new release since they left us aching for more 14 years ago could follow the same fate.
To some, they’ll be scratching their heads over the fuss of another band from a bygone era that finally got around to catching up with the rest of the music world.
For others, it’ll provide substantial proof that the best things come to those who wait – no matter the delay.
