The 20th-anniversary edition of The Avalanches’ groundbreaking debut album, Since I Left You, is out now via Astralwerks. Originally released in Australia in 2000 and in the U.S./U.K. in 2001, Since I Left You was named one of the year’s best albums by critics around the world and later placed in the Top 10 of Pitchfork’s Top 200 Albums of the 2000s and in the Top 20 of Rolling Stone’s Greatest EDM Albums of All Time. Just last year, the Los Angeles Times hailed it as a “masterpiece.” Stereogum noted, “Its sound was intoxicating and unique, like being swept away into a fantastical world in the middle of the night, where the beachfront dance parties are tinged with melancholy and the drowsier you get, the more clarity you attain.”
Today, in the hours leading up to the release of the deluxe edition, The Avalanches shared the visualizer for “Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (MF DOOM Remix)” – one of the remarkable remixes exclusive to the deluxe edition. View HERE. A previously unheard vocal contribution on the track serves as a bittersweet homage from the late, enigmatic master of the hip-hop underground, who passed away last October. Daniel Dumile – the masked rapper who performed as MF DOOM – was praised by The New York Times for forging “a style that was intricate and imaginative, calling on both esoteric and lowbrow references as well as cartoonish imagery in lyrics that could be poignantly emotional.” Born in London and raised on Long Island, Dumile released six albums plus full-length collaborations with Madlib and Danger Mouse, among others.
Prince Paul, the de facto fourth member of De La Soul and renowned remixer of Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick and Queen Latifah, revisits the album’s exhilarating title track and acclaimed British producer/DJ Leon Vynehall brings a profound sense of reflection to his remix of “Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life.” The deluxe edition also includes fresh mixes from Mario Caldato Jr., who produced the Beastie Boys’ multi-Platinum classics Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication and Hello Nasty, Black Dice, Sinkane, Andy Votel, Stereolab, Ernest Saint Laurent and Carl Craig. See below for full track listing.
On Apple Music’s “The Echo Chamber,” Mike D recently spoke with The Avalanches’ Robbie Chater and Tony DiBlasi about the deluxe edition and interviewed Mario Caldato Jr. about his remix of “Frontier Psychiatrist.” Listen to the interviews HERE.
No album ever made history quite like The Avalanches’ debut. A meticulous labor of love sifted from the second-hand record bins of Melbourne, Since I Left You was an unprecedented act of musical invention filtered through the loving hands of young music-obsessed DJs and musicians to blossom into the ultimate feelgood world party soundtrack. The boundary-pushing orchestration of samples — some say as many as 3,500 uniquely sourced and spliced sound fragments — was unanimously acclaimed as an act of technical genius. But the glowing heart of the project, a story of oneness through time, space, and infinite diversity, was the magic spell that made the world melt in elation.
“As if stringing pearls on a necklace, they sequenced 18 distinct and wondrous songs into a seamless suite somewhere between a symphony and the ultimate deejay set,” music writer Simon Reynolds (Pitchfork, The New York Times, The Guardian) reflects in the liner notes to the 20thAnniversary reissue. “Since I Left You’s achievement was to break the easy but facile equation of depth with darkness, intensity with misery: on this record, it is happiness that is the complicated and mysterious state.”
“Music lovers get it, and that’s what we ultimately are,” says Robbie Chater. “It’s almost like an exploration of our relationship with the world and with music and, as music fans, what our place is in the whole process. Looking back, I’m proud of this record as a pure expression of joy and love, heart on its sleeve and is free from irony.”
The release and subsequent touring in support of Since I Left You was followed by a 16-year radio silence, which was broken with the release of The Avalanches’ sophomore album, Wildflower (Astralwerks), which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart and atop the Australian Albums chart in 2016. Their third album, We Will Always Love You (Astralwerks), was awarded four stars by Rolling Stone and won the prestigious 2020 Australian Music Prize.
Announced as the inaugural Luminary Artists in Residence, The Avalanches will be performing Since I Left You with Australia’s Adelaide Symphony Orchestra on July 30 as part of Illuminate Adelaide: a major new event celebrating innovation, music, art, and light. In addition to this special one-off show, Robbie Chater and Tony DiBlasi will be appearing in conversation with Zan Rowe and Jonathan Zawada, curate an exhibition with local artists, and perform a DJ set at MAAD, a massive closing weekend block party in Adelaide’s West End. For more information, please click here.
SINCE I LEFT YOU – 20TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION – TRACK LISTING
VINYL:
SIDE A
1. Since I Left You
2. Stay Another Season
3. Radio
4. Two Hearts In 3/4 Time
SIDE B
1. Avalanche Rock
2. Flight Tonight
3. Close To You
4. Diners Only
5. A Different Feeling
SIDE C
1. Electricity
2. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life
3. Pablo’s Cruise
4. Frontier Psychiatrist
SIDE D
1. Etoh
2. Summer Crane
3. Little Journey
4. Live At Dominoes
5. Extra Kings
SIDE E
1. Since I Left You (Cornelius Remix)
2. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Edan Remix)
3. Frontier Psychiatrist (Mario Caldato Jr’s 85% Remix)
4. Close To You (Sun Araw Remix)
SIDE F
1. Since I Left You (Stereolab Remix)
2. Flight Tonight (Canyons Travel Agent Dub)
3. Radio (Sinkane Remix)
SIDE G
1. Since I Left You (Prince Paul Remix)
2. Electricity (Harvey’s Nightclub Re-Edit)
3. Summer Crane (Black Dice Remix)
4. Extra Kings (Deakin Remix)
SIDE H
1. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (MF DOOM Remix)
2. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Dragged By Leon Vynehall)
3. A Different Feeling (Carl Craig’s Paperclip People Remix)
4. Thank You Caroline (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
DIGITAL:
PART 1
1. Since I Left You
2. Stay Another Season
3. Radio
4. Two Hearts In 3/4 Time
5. Avalanche Rock
6. Flight Tonight
7. Close To You
8. Diners Only
9. A Different Feeling
10. Electricity
11. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life
12. Pablo’s Cruise
13. Frontier Psychiatrist
14. Etoh
15. Summer Crane
16. Little Journey
17. Live At Dominoes
18. Extra Kings
PART 2
1. Since I Left You (Cornelius Remix)
2. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Edan Remix)
3. Frontier Psychiatrist (Mario Caldato Jr’s 85% Remix)
4. Close To You (Sun Araw Remix)
5. Since I Left You (Stereolab Remix)
6. Flight Tonight (Canyons Travel Agent Dub)
7. Radio (Sinkane Remix)
8. Since I Left You (Prince Paul Remix)
9. Electricity (Harvey’s Nightclub Re-Edit)
10. Summer Crane (Black Dice Remix)
11. Extra Kings (Deakin Remix)
12. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (MF DOOM Remix)
13. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Dragged By Leon Vynehall)
14. A Different Feeling (Carl Craig’s Paperclip People Remix)
15. Thank You Caroline (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
PHYSICAL CD:
CD1
1. Since I Left You
2. Stay Another Season
3. Radio
4. Two Hearts In 3/4 Time
5. Avalanche Rock
6. Flight Tonight
7. Close To You
8. Diners Only
9. A Different Feeling
10. Electricity
11. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life
12. Pablo’s Cruise
13. Frontier Psychiatrist
14. Etoh
15. Summer Crane
16. Little Journey
17. Live At Dominoes
18. Extra Kings
CD2
1. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (MF DOOM Remix)
2. Summer Crane (Black Dice Remix)
3. Frontier Psychiatrist (Mario Caldato Jr’s 85% Remix)
4. Electricity (Dr. Rockit’s Dirty Kiss Remix)
5. Electricity (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
6. Thank You Caroline (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
7. Thank You Caroline (Andy Votel Remix)
8. So Why So Sad (The Avalanches Sean Penn Mix)
9. The Shining (The Avalanches Good Word For The Weekend Mix)
10. Pablo’s Cruise (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
11. I’m A Cuckoo (The Avalanches Remix)
12. Chico (The Avalanches Wernham Hogg Mix)
13. Fade Together (The Avalanches Remix)
14. Since I Left You (Stereolab Remix)
15. Flight Tonight (Canyons Travel Agent Dub)
16. Radio (Sinkane Remix)
17. A Different Feeling (Ernest Saint Laurent Remix)
18. A Different Feeling (Carl Craig’s Paperclip People Remix)
19. Two Hearts In 3/4 Time (Jackson & His Computer Band Remix)
20. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Dragged By Leon Vynehall)
21. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Edan Remix)