Since I Left You, the debut album from Melbourne-based collective The Avalanches, shouldn’t exist.
The improbable result of lightning-in-a-bottle sonic alchemy achieved despite the technological limitations of the day, it’s a miracle of a record that stitches together somewhere in the vicinity of 3,500 samples into a cohesive, deeply satisfying body of work. The result? A genre-blurring masterpiece combining joy, humour, and heartbreak that still opens a magic portal into a singular musical universe 25 years on from its November 27th, 2000, release date.
Since I Left You was a meteor that no one saw coming.
Much like Beastie Boys, The Avalanches started out as a punk band. Formed in 1994, Alarm 115 consisted of childhood friends Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi — now the sole members of The Avalanches — along with Darren Seltmann and Manabu Etoh. By 1997, the group, featuring new members Gordon McQuilten (keyboards) and DJ Dexter (Dexter Fabay), had morphed into more of a sample-happy hip-hop act that was heavily influenced by the Beasties and the 1996 album Dr. Octagonecologyst by Dr. Octagon (an alias of oddball underground MC Kool Keith).
What followed was a series of legendarily chaotic live shows, a string of group names — Swinging Monkey Cocks, Quentin’s Brittle Bones and Whoops Downs Syndrome were thankfully ditched before they landed on The Avalanches for their fifth gig — and the 1997 EP El Producto.
While the EP, and single “Rock City” in particular, gave a taste of the group’s creative sampling prowess and penchant for unlikely left turns, it was the Licensed to Ill to Since I Left You’s Paul’s Boutique (there’s that Beastie Boys comparison again), the sound of kids wilding out and having fun that gave little indication of the sampledelic classic that was about to follow.
If there’s an argument to be made that limitations can help rather than hinder creativity, then the creation of Since I Left You is a strong example that backs it up.
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The genesis of the album began in Melbourne share houses, where Chater and Seltmann, utilising a record collection of cheap, unwanted vinyl cribbed from op shops, swapped samples they’d made using a turntable and a primitive Akai S200 sampler, their work saved on the now-archaic formats of floppy disks and zip drives. “The S900, you could have like, eight seconds of music on one floppy. So by the time you have a drum beat and a sample, that was pretty much it,” Chater told us in 2021. “One Since I Left You song – and I still remember because I can picture the zip disk – could fit on a zip. So ‘Frontier Psychiatrist’ could fit on one.”
Having built a considerable library of samples, the group — now with turntablist and keyboardist James De La Cruz on board — decided to make the bold choice to ditch the vocals and instruments and instead create “this beautiful flowing thing”: an album entirely comprised of obscure samples (not including one of rapper Raekwon and a snippet of Madonna’s “Holiday”) that was primarily informed by Sixties pop music and trailblazing artists like the Beach Boys and Marvin Gaye.
And flow Since I Left You did.
Although the original plan of making it a concept album called Pablo’s Cruise, about a guy chasing a girl from port to port and always being one step behind, was eventually abandoned, the theme is still baked into Since I Left You’s DNA. Part of the album’s magic is that it feels like a complete journey, in a literal sense (the album’s ocean liner noises and songs like “Flight Tonight” and “Little Journey”, which give the sense of a whirlwind around-the-world trip), as well as a musical journey through space, time, dream logic, and the very history of pop music itself.
Although it was preceded by the 1999 single “Electricity” and the platinum-selling single “Frontier Psychiatrist” — the latter perhaps the giddiest, most enjoyable novelty song of all time, with its samples of horses and Canadian comedians Wayne and Shuster — neither gave the full picture of what Since I Left You would be, or how game-changing it would become.
Much like De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising, Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique (both 1989) and DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing….. (1996), Since I Left You redefined what could be achieved via sampling, solidifying it as a genuine art form that could rearrange music into transcendent new forms.
The album’s impact was seismic. Nothing in the world, let alone Australia, sounded anything like Since I Left You, and 25 years later, nothing still does. The notoriously fickle UK music press fawned over the album, which in turn helped it to sell more than expected and debut in the UK top 10 at No. 8 when it was released there on tastemaker label XL Recordings in April 2021.
At home in Australia, the album was released on Steve Pavlovic’s Modular Records and debuted at No. 21 on the ARIA Australian Albums Chart, eventually going double platinum. At the 2001 ARIA Music Awards, the group won Best New Artist – Album and Best Dance Release for Since I Left You, Best New Artist – Single for “Frontier Psychiatrist”, and Producer of the Year for Bobbydazzler (the production name for Chater and Seltmann).
Chart positions and sales figures aside, the real measure of success for Since I Left You was that its late-November release guaranteed it became the go-to, feel-good soundtrack to the Australian summer. It became a staple at house parties and get-togethers with friends across the country, making it one of those rare albums that pretty much everyone you knew loved and owned. Since I Left You was the great unifier that kicked off a decade where dance music dominated, paving the way for fellow Aussie acts like Cut Copy and The Presets.
From the timeless Jackson 5-inspired title track through to final song “Extra Kings”, Since I Left You is an album – not a collection of singles with filler, not a bunch of songs thrown together with no thought about sequencing, not music put together to chase a trend or appeal to a certain demographic. It’s the triumphant result of thinking with your heart, not your head — the pursuit of a specific feeling and making singular art from that noble quest.
It’s little wonder that we ranked The Avalanches first in our list of 50 Greatest Australian Electronic Acts of All Time and placed Since I Left You at No. 8 in our 200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time countdown.
A quarter of a century on from its release, Since I Left You remains a trip worth embarking upon again and again. Whether it’s soundtracking falling in love, heartbreak, a wild party, or a quiet night in, it’s the kind of album that travels with you as much as you travel with it. Take a little journey.
