I’ve always been intrigued by the quote “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. With the recent advent of thrifting and collecting vintage items, it seems like more people are starting to live by this maxim. My favorite example of this though can be found in the musical world with plunderphonics: a genre where new music is created through combining recognizable samples.
When the idea of sampling comes to mind, naturally people will be quick to jump to the conclusion of theft: surely, something made entirely out of other songs cannot be original? While copyright lawyers and record labels will be quick to agree, artists like the Avalanches highlight the opposite.
Around eight months ago, I discovered the 2000 album “Since I Left You”, or SILY for short, by the Avalanches, and was blown away by its lush beauty. Weaving thousands of samples into a delicate tapestry of sound is no easy task, but Robbie Chater and Darren Seltmann, the two DJs behind the album, breathe life and texture into every second.
Drawing from sources as varied as ‘60s cowboy shows to Madonna’s “Holiday”, the album reflects this wide variety of samples. It oscillates rapidly between zany and introspective, with sentimental tracks like “Tonight May Have to Last Me My Whole Life” being followed immediately by “Frontier Psychiatrist”, which features wacky lines like “You’re a nut! You’re crazy as a coconut!” and horse whinny sounds as the main driving beat.Their sound hovering in a limbo between happy and sad, it wasn’t a surprise to find out that Chater had based the album’s sound on ‘60s pop like the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, itself an album that explores both sides of the emotional spectrum.
“You’re crazy as a coconut!”
Somehow, the sum ends up larger than its parts: “Since I Left You” captures a deep sense of longing, a yearning for simpler times that transcends its medium. Two best friends, armed with a dusty Macintosh G4 from the early 90s and an Akai S2000 sampler, found magic in the dollar bin of their record-store. Those grassroots ideals really resonated with me personally - here, its limitations gave the album a certain charm.
It took them a while - sixteen years in fact - to follow up this debut. “Wildflower”, released in 2016, draws from “Since I Left You”’s sample-heavy mastering while taking more of a rap-leaning direction. Probably the best example of this is the first single released - “Frankie Sinatra”, featuring MF DOOM and Danny Brown (who also dropped Atrocity Exhibition the same year, check it out too). Built off a vaudevillian calypso clip from the 40s, this is definitely one of the goofiest tracks on the album.
Where I find Wildflower shines though are in the introspective, emotional songs like “If I Was a Folkstar” and “Saturday Night Inside Out”. Here, the sense of nostalgia the Avalanches draw from really shines - there’s something so poignant about the closing track “Saturday Night Inside Out” that’s really left an impression on me personally. The Avalanches’ works have reminded me that the art of sampling should not be disregarded as theft – the act of stitching disparate sources into one cohesive whole is an inherently creative endeavour.
Really, the only way to experience it for yourself is to give the Avalanches’ discography a listen:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3C8RpaI3Go0yFF9whvKoED?si=Zlqp_y0BSwm8QzYS87XenQ
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