The Avalanches

Lisa, my wife wouldn’t let me play a CD for our travelling about this weekend, well she did, it was Bossanova by Pixies, but it was on an ipod and it wasn’t part of my loosely alphabetical trawl through my CD’s. Today it resumed though and it was the self titled album by New Zealand dance act, The Avalanches. I have to say when I first heard this album I liked it very much, in a similar vein to Lemon Jelly and Cowcube, the difference being I know when I get to those albums they will still be a joy to listen to. The Avalanches wasn’t. Every track is a 3 second loop repeated over an over, they aren’t songs they are breaks, good breaks but breaks none the less, and this really long album ( I was stuck between Jct 11 and 8 for 40 minutes and the album only finished as I pulled into work) but apart from maybe 1 or 2 tracks, you could listen to any 5 seconds within a song and it would sound the same as any other 5 seconds within the same song. They are using hip hop beats but not breaking it up with any rapping, it was a really tedious CD to listen to, Frontier Psychiatrist and Since I met you are pretty early on and EVERY other track is practically a 3 second loop. I really wished that I had skipped this album but that is breaking the rules. Appalling. 1 out of 10. It should be less as the album version is not the version of since I met you that I love.