Since I Left You: The Avalanches (E5)

Yep – the mysteries of The Avalanches unveiled. This is part one of a three-part series: we will cover all three Avalanches records over the next three episodes of Lester The Nightfly.

We start our journey in 2000 with the ground-breaking record Since I Left You.

Since I Left You is the debut studio album by Australian electronic music group the Avalanches, released on 27 November 2000 by Modular Recordings. It was produced by group members Robbie Chater and Darren Seltmann (under the pseudonym Bobbydazzler), and samples extensively from various genres. The album was recorded and produced at two separate, near-identical studios by Chater and Seltmann, exchanging audio mixes of records they sampled.

Our Drill

First your part: Go away. Really. Go away.

Go listen to Since I left You. Right now. Yes. I’m serious. Here is link to the record on YouTube: Since I Left You.

I’ll wait.

OK – wipe the tears (of joy) from your eyes. Now, let’s begin. Beee…. cause….

This is my part: We are only going to get to play a few selections from this record. Beee…. cause… we are going to explore the source material… the samples. And talk about what these brilliant DJ’s did to deliver a few of those remarkable songs that you just heard. To give it all away right from the front – here are the songs and the sample sources for this show:

Song Title	Artists	Year
Since I Left You	The Avalanches	2000
Two Hearts in 3/4 Time	The Avalanches	2000
Yu-Ma	Marlene Shaw	1977
Rosemary	Robert Morse, Bonnie Scott & Elliott Lawrence	1961
Ghost Story	John Cale	1970
Oba Oba	Luiz Bonfá & Pat Kirby	1967
With a Little Help	Tony Mottola feat. The Free Design	1968
Live at Dominoes	The Avalanches	2000
Dimension Five	The Fifth Dimension	1970
Extra Kings	The Avalanches	2000
H2 Overture	War	1973
Let Me In	The Osmonds	1973
Wichita Lineman	The Ray Conniff Singers	1969
Oh Oh Chéri	Francoise Hardy	1962
The Spark of Life	Todd Rundgren	1974
Theme from the Sand Pebbles	Enoch Light	1967
Extra Kings (Conclusion)	The Avalanches	2000
Since I Left You	The Avalanches	2000

Research and Credits

My special thanks to (with links):

Matt LeMay and Pitchfork
This Song is Yours Podcast (Australia)
People at Who Sampled Dot Com
Podcast: The Panini Press Pop Culture Podcast
Podcast: Netsurfer Pro: Since I Left You
Nicki Bowman (for this article: The Avalanches)
YouTube: Every Sample From The Avalanches Since I Left You

And so you get a quick sense of the complexity of this project some facts:

Since I Left You is the first record of its kind. DJ’s like DangerMouse and Fatboy Slim, but the record in many ways invented a genre. That genre is referred to affectionately as Plunderponics.

This record has no musical additions. No new bass lines. No new vocals (other than one need to re-record the main vocal in Frontier Psychiatrist for copyright reasons in 2017).

Notable artist sample from Madonna, The Duprees, Tony Mottola, The Main Attraction, Jascha Heifetz, Sergio Mendez and the Brazil ’66, Wayne and Shuster, Marlene Shaw, Prince Paul and De La Soul, Xavier Cugat, Sesame Street, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Denton and Cook, Camp Lo, The Kay-Gees, The Paperclip People, Daft Punk, Nancy Wilson, The QE2, Flip Wilson, The Mamas and the Papas, The 5th Dimension.