The Avalanches’ Since I Left You (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

"Get a drink, have a good time now, welcome to paradise..."

- “Since I Left You”

Since I Left You is to sample-based music what the Rosetta Stone was for language: a plunderphonic odyssey that makes plain the power recorded compositions hold as instruments unto themselves. Weaving over 3,500 samples in two separate, near-identical studios, producers Robbie Chater and Darren Seltmann conjure a tropical utopia of groove that reverberates with a nostalgia so potent it pulls with the vibrancy of actual memory. The lushness of the experience is communal and unflinching, from its Main Attractions sampling title track to the humorous cinematic brilliance of “Frontier Psychiatrist” to the crescendoing grande finale of “Live at Dominoes.” The remix additions made to the 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition will be of interest to hardcore fans of the record, ranging in quality from the essential (the late MF DOOM’s remix of “Tonight May Have To Last All My Life”) to the interesting (Prince Paul and Stereolab’s remixes of “Since I Left You”) to the pedestrian (Black Dice’s remix of “Summer Crane” and Mario Caldato Jr.’s 85% remix of “Frontier Psychiatrist”). Fundamentally, it is the innate human desire to connect that the Avalanches understand so well, and their mastery of music as a medium to do so is what maintains Since I Left You’s mythic status as one of the most affecting and vital works of dance music ever produced. More than an album, it is an audio paradise that changes lives.

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