Emotional Avalanches

There seems to be a lot of backward-looking music these days

Triple J, Australia's youth radio station, had their Hottest One Hundred on the weekend and, while we were listening my brother observed how many more tracks this year were covers or remixes.

I told him how my new favourite critic had a similar observation of Tiktok's trend for earworms made from snippets of nostalgic tunes. 

Ted Gioia has written that younger audiences find it comforting to hear the same songs, as well as bemoaning the limit this places on music discovery.

It prompted me to reflect on those pop songs that I'd hated hearing until, after memorable moments on dancefloors, they became triggers that allowed me to re-experience ecstasies.

So I'm now experimenting with making memories.

On the weekend I tested the role of music in becoming a soundtrack for moments (or making moments from soundtracks?) when I drove my son from home.

He's moved to the city to start uni and we packed stuff into his car and drove for hours to a much larger town.

As we were leaving I thought to grab a CD for the drive and reached for my favourite purchase of 2022, The Avalanches' latest album.

While I've been a longtime fan of the group, I didn't immediately jumped on their last couple of albums.

It wasn't until 'Red Lights' popped up in the credits of a TV show that I remembered I was going to give them a listen, then it was a pleasure to hear their return to form.

Given the gap between albums for The Avalanches (and the diversity they like to show while playing live), I'd had doubts whether they would still meet my expectations.

It's great to find things where you left them!

So, anyway, my son and I were driving from home and the mood was tender.

Rather than listening to the radio, where you run the risk of news headlines, I thought music would be better for reflection.

The album "We Will Always Love You" is kind of a twist on the theme of The Avalanches first album, "Since I Left You" in being about distances.

Where the original trumpeted the joys of travel, this return-to-form is about missing people.

While we listened to it, I think we got to the third song, when my son asked "Did you have to pick an album about leaving?"

I told him that this is how memories are made and that I wanted to remember this trip with one of my newest favourite albums.

I recounted the ripple-down-my-spine that would accompany listening to The Bird after I saw them live, or how the songs I thought were drivel would weirdly become irresistable gems on certain dancefloors.

Then, as we passed a harvested field of stalks with red dirt showing through, a dust devil spun toward the road and I remembered how my Wiradjuri friends would say those show when spirits are visiting.

I'd heard that at a farewell for a friend and now began to wonder if she weren't giving us a wave on our journey, then the tears sprouted from the corners of my eyes.

We listened to the beautiful music.

Anyway, when it came time for me to leave my son and return home, I left the CD with him.

I hope he'll put it on while watching a sunset and know that we're seeing the same sight.

In the meantime, I can tweak the raw nerve of his absence by listening too. 

 

One more bit of The Avalanches theme of our weekend, while my son and I were indulging in our shared love of shopping at secondhand stores, we found a copy of Koichi Oki's "Yamaha Superstar" for six dollars.

It's the album recommended by the band in an interview I did back in the day.

My son bought it and we listened to it on my mother's old gramophone.

He enjoyed it, but that shouldn't be a surprise since it's all covers!

 

Live Frontier Psychiatry

The Avalanches' Frontier Psychiatrist performed live. Coming to the Sydney Opera House in May I hear.

Here's an interview I did with The Avalanches last century.

March into the archives : The Avalanches

The following interview with some guy from The Avalanches was published in BMA Magazine in November 1998. Picture with the author taken by 'Pling at their Canberra show earlier in the year.

You may have been fortunate enough to see The Avalanches earlier this year at the BMA sixth birthday or just recently when they were here supporting Public Enemy. They'll return to Canberra this month and spoke to us to bring everyone up to date on their show.

You've just finished touring with Public Enemy, would did that go?

"Excellent. We expected the most unfriendly hardcore dudes and they were almost nicer than anyone we've ever met. In fact I think PE perceived us as 12-year olds. They kind of took us under their wing and explained the facts of life to us."

So they were paternal?

"Chuck D especially. Flav in a kind of supercilious way. Flav's pretty much unlike anyone we've ever met but he was fantastic. They were all so friendly, I mean we had soundchecks where I think they sort of dug it to a degree and Chuck even talked about the possibility of distributing our records."

So when are we going to see an album from The Avalanches?

"Maybe next year. I think the plan is to do an EP again. I especially want to aim it at 12 inches. We want to get in the clubs. I'd love to get DJs to play our music. It's kind of moving in different directions. And that's gonna kind of help us with doing our EPs in that we don't need a concept for each one. Kind of like the way we started, we never really thought we'd be hiphop. We wanted to be all yelping and screaming but it's sort of -- I mean we all listen to hiphop but -- the new stuff doesn't go down that route."

When The Avalanches came out it was so obvious there'd been a vacuum for an Australian hiphop act.

"It does but we don't want the responsibility."

You live show doesn't really seem like a hiphop show. You've got those influences in your music but there's a whole different icing on top.

"Yeah, it's like everyone wants to talk about how we sound like the Beastie Boys. I don't think say that about our new stuff though, it's sort of '70s electronic music and a lot of house music and disco. The other thing we're trying in the studio -- I don't know how, we're still experimenting -- is to get orchestral parts and jazz chords and string songs together which have structures without beats. It's sort of like pop music, kind of psychedelic like Mercury Rev or the Beach Boys."

Sort of like you're drawing on whatever sonic elements you can get your hands on?

"Yeah, well, we've got a pretty nice abount of vinyl to draw on and to go crazy with. I still don't really play any parts. We still pretty much sample everything."

Have you guys really got a garage full of vinyl?

"Yeah, I got a garage and I got a house full. The garage is only for seven inches! They're useless. There's no point in having them. That was just a by-product of a steal I got, it was only $500 for the room! Two thousand LPs and four thousand singles!"

So, there's some good stuff in there?

"The best bit was 150 production records from '60s soundtracks, I would have paid $500 for these alone. It's just ten seconds of either jingle music or sound effects or spooky noises. That itself is free of copyrights, so that was the best thing about it."

Speaking of samples, there's one that I am curious about...

"Ha ha! We haven't cleared any! Only if it's live can I tell you."

What about the guitar riff at the beginning of the second verse in 'Rock city'?

"We've used that sample on about four different tracks. That's from the record that changed our life. It's by Koichi Oki and the name of the record is Yamaha Superstar. Seriously, we were a guitar band when first heard this record. It's a demonstration record for this fantastic, out of space organ that Yamaha brought out in the late '60s and this guy does covers. The best example is the first track, 'Light my fire'. The organ is so out of time and so extremely mixed that we were just blown away. So we just threw away the guitars and bought organs!"

Portrait of the blogger as a young man onstage with The Avalanches

Pic by 'Pling for BMA Magazine, Canberra

Click here for pics of the show on 6 March 1998