Cut-up music has been really important to me for a long time. I'm sure it's obvious that I enjoy a wide range of musical styles, but the juxtapositions contained in cut-up records really captured my imagination when I was younger and still do to this day. Two of the first cut-up records I remember hearing were Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam's Let The Beat Hit 'Em, which was featured in my July mixtape, and a megamix of some sort by Jive Bunny. How I heard these before hearing Double Dee & Steinski I can't explain, but hearing them led me to eventually find the Lessons tracks as well as other works of creative sampling. If I had to list my favorite records where sampling was used in a truly creative way, the Lessons from Double Dee & Steinski, DJ Shadow's Entroducing..., the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique, John Oswald's Plunderphonic and Cassetteboy's The Parker Tapes would all be at the top of that list, as well as the Avalanches' Since I Left You.
Since I Left You is the Avalanches' sole full-length release to date. It was released at the beginning of this decade to cheers and raves for it's anything-goes style of sampling. It's the sound of punk kids digging through a thrift-store's vinyl collection and creating new songs out of the most minute pieces. It doesn't have a specific story or theme, though an unspoken vibe of partying and a need for love seems to flow throughout it. It's almost like an end-of-summer party, with the listener dreading it's finale but realizing all they have to do is press play again when it's over. There's disco, rave, rock, hip-hop, noise and kitsch, among many other styles, all rolled into one. It sounds like it took ten years to make, which just goes to reinforce why a proper follow-up has yet to appear.
It's probably no surprise that Since I Left You went through a number of changes prior to it's completion, due in great part to sampling and royalty issues. As it was taking such a long time to complete and, as rumors state, rough tapes of the works in progress were leaking, the band decided to release something to hold the fans over. Essentially the album with the more obvious samples fleshed-out along-side party favorites, Gimix was sold at shows and given as a promotional release to various outlets. It never got an official release but is considered just as important as Since I Left You if not more so. Some of the emotional depth of the finished album is lost, but in it's place you get a party rocking mixtape that never seems to age. Putting Bob Dylan over a Madonna groove, Blowfly next to Ol' Dirty Bastard and constant replays of bits from De La Soul's Saturdays in the middle of a million other things might sound like an overload, but it's simply a blissful release that will make you smile and dance with equal fervor.
This rip of Gimix is from an official promo CD released by Modular. A few bootleggers have tried to repackage Gimix and market it either as a new album or the original version of Since I Left You, but the bootleggers screwed up the flow of the original release, and anyway, why pay for something that has been free to begin with for so long! Hell, the Avalanches were giving it away at their site for quite a while. Anyway, both Gimix and Since I Left You should be taken as separate things and one will not account for the other. So, if you are unfamiliar with the Avalanches, it would be worth your time to check out Gimix. If you enjoy it, you should without question get Since I Left You. Of course, if you know Since I Left You and haven't heard Gimix, here's your chance. It's worthy of every bit of myth and mysticism that's been said about it, and until the Avalanches release another album, it will help you stay the wait.
The Avalanches - Gimix
01 Since I Left You
02 Stay Another Season
03 Two Hearts In 3/4 Time
04 Close To You / Electricity
05 Little Journey
06 Diners Only
07 A Different Feeling / Pablo's Cruise
08 Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life
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