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Album reviews Music

>>> Avalanches

It’s been 16 years since Melbourne’s Avalanches released their sampledelic classic Since I Left You, and listening to the follow-up feels like entering a time warp to 2001. Guest features by current artists like Danny Brown, Rye Rye, Father John Misty and Ariel Pink aside, Wildflower’s collage of nostalgic samples and sounds feels out of time and far removed from the pop music trends of today.

As on the previous Avalanches album, members Robbie Chater, James Dela Cruz and Tony Di Blasi have stitched music and audio samples – obscure and well known – together with orchestral arrangements and original vocals into a continuous stream of music that, this time around, takes listeners on an acid trip through the swirling sensations of the Summer of Love.

Listening to it is akin to turning an old radio or TV dial. The samples range from The Sound Of Music and the Bee Gees to post-punk singer Chandra and a children’s choir performing the Beatles’ Come Together. Although the vibe is decidedly old and analog, the non-linear effect – the way the group mashes together mainstream with underground and, in the case of the Beatles sample, amateur with professional – feels intensely relevant.

Of course, the Avalanches’ continued conceptual prescience wouldn’t matter were Wildflower not such an enjoyable experience. At worst the album gets a bit too cutesy (lead single Frankie Sinatra), but its unrelentingly cheery harmonies and melodies are so effervescent that it practically makes the air sparkle.

Top track: If I Was A Folkstar    

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