The Avalanches are back with their fourth album, No Bad Memories, out last Friday.
It's a 28-track behemoth of a double LP (31-track if you go for the deluxe digital download), cramming in nearly as many guest stars as it does samples.
The video at the top of this page - Every Single Weekend featuring Jamie xx - is indicative of No Bad Memories as a whole,
Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, my memories of music are inextricably linked with commercial jingles, earworms like I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing through to Join Our Club carrying a expertly targeted and insidious message to drink more fizzy pop and eat more chocolate biscuits.
No Bad Memories is inspired by this juxtaposition of magical memories and mendacious marketing. Avalanches' Rob Chater makes a further fascinating connection:
“It seems to be bound up with the nature of sampling itself.
Once we start digging through forgotten sounds and uncovering their meaning,
almost inevitably you get sent down a path of discovery.
Every forgotten sound opens another door.
And that’s what I love - feeling like a kid again.
Diving into this whole world of advertising,
looking at how jingles get made,
it’s the kind of thing that keeps me interested
in sampling as a process, an art form.”
In true Avalanches' tradition, only one track goes over the three-and-a-half minute mark, and the majority are less than two-and-a-half, like the two songs above and this little gem, I Give Everything I Have. In 1:53, Loaded Honey in the audio and Haley Joel Osment in the video, certainly do that.
First time I've heard any these- hyperactive sampledelica. Love it.
ReplyDeleteBy a sort of strange coincidence, just last week, I dug out my CD of The Avalanches first album (it's the only one I have). It's one that annoyed me more than thrilled me back in the day and I did regret shelling out on it at the time.
ReplyDeleteMore than quarter of a century on, I haven't changed my opinion. :-)