A few familiar notes – the startup sound of an old computer, an antique advertising jingle – and suddenly you're teleported to the past.
asserted
you → teleport → past
The Avalanches know this power intimately.
asserted
Avalanches → know → power
And their new album weaponises it.
asserted
album → weaponise → it
"Everybody has a commercial they hear, a cereal or soft drink tune from 30 years ago, and it just transports them," Avalanches co-founder Robbie Chater tells Double J's Karen Leng.
"It's phenomenal how it sticks with you over so long.
asserted
it → have → you
You think you've forgotten it and then it hits."
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it → think → it
Nostalgia has been crucial to the Australian group since 2000's Since I Left You, their groundbreaking debut constructed from thousands of obscure analogue samples, made them unlikely stars.
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them → leave → samples
It took 16 mythical years, and losing four members, to make a sequel: the warm, psychedelic Wildflower and its panoply of not just samples but rappers and singers.
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It → take → samples
We Will Always Love You in 2020 was a cosmic masterpiece inspired by the star-crossed romance of scientists Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.
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Love → love → scientists
Now a trio – co-founders Chater, Tony Di Blasi and new member Andy Szekeres – they find inspiration in the past on new album No Bad Memories, mining sounds from outdated technology and advertising and their ability to trigger emotional impact.
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they → find → impact
"It's a special power," says Szekeres.
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Szekeres → say → ?
"A sound that can instantly take millions of people back to this intense feeling of emotion that's separate from the product.
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that → take → product
"
Even the album's title is sampled, from a 1980s ad for an obsolete medium most under 30 wouldn't recognise: floppy disks.
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30 → sample → medium
"It's spruiking the quality of their data storage," says Chater.
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Chater → spruike → storage
It was a working title [but] began to take on another meaning."
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It → work → meaning
Talent and technology
Spanning 31 tracks, No Bad Memories has everything fans love about The Avalanches.
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fans → span → Avalanches
A dense fantasia that's joyful, funky, soulful yet capable of tugging on the heartstrings and boasting another all-star cast of guests.
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that → tug → guests
An overlooked bridge from Carly Simon's Make Me Feel Something becomes the sparkling centrepiece of One More Fantasy, an Avalanches specialty.
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Me → make → Fantasy
Lead single Together unites electronic acts Nikki Nair, Jessy Lanza and viral musician Prentiss with video game-y synths and a children's chorus liberated from a '70s TV adaptation of Enid Blyton's The Famous Five.
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single → unite → Five
Its fizzy rhythm is threaded with mouse clicks, loading data, camera shutters and jingles for Nokia and Toshiba.
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rhythm → thread → Nokia
It's a kaleidoscopic album where legacy acts and emerging talent co-mingle with forgotten jingles and the physical clicking, whirring and static of antiquated devices.
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acts → emerge → devices
"The sounds our generation knows," notes Chater, "also, when it goes wrong."
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it → know → ?
Szekeres adds: "I still have trauma … Like, a zip disk drive plugged into a sampler that stopped working.
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that → add → sampler
The dreaded Windows error and malfunctioning hardware are among the record's numerous Easter eggs.
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error → malfunction → eggs
Where The Avalanches once dug through op-shop vinyl crates for inspiration, No Bad Memories sent them down YouTube rabbit holes.
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Memories → dig → holes
We need to be excited to give us the energy to make a project because obviously it's lots of archival work; very time-consuming," says Chater.
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Chater → need → work
The resulting tapestry thrives in whimsy, melancholy and imagination.
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tapestry → result → whimsy
A bittersweet soundtrack that both critiques and celebrates how consumer culture sells emotion, not just product.
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culture → critique → emotion
"You're growing up and its capitalism coming at you.
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capitalism → grow → you
You don't have a choice of whether you absorb all this messaging or not," says Chater.
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Chater → have → messaging
"But then also a lot of the ads are really beautiful – the photography, that saturated colour – and the jingles stick in your mind.
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jingles → stick → mind
"I love how I'm not even sure how I feel about it.
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I → love → it
Because on one hand, we've been sold this impossible dream.
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we → sell → dream
And on the other hand, I remember it fondly."
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I → remember → it
The three estimate they "probably made more [ads] than we sampled".
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we → estimate → ads
With visual artist Jonathan Zawada, they conjured Takumi Digital Archives, a fictional company behind walkmans, cameras, shampoo, magazines, you name it.
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you → conjure → it
They built an interactive website, cast The Sixth Sense star Haley Joel Osment as a Takumi employee for promotional videos and made physical prototypes to market the album.
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They → build → album
"You can really go off on a tangent.
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You → go → tangent
'Maybe we're going to start actually making these products,'" Szekeres recalls.
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Szekeres → go → products
"Then you stop and go, 'actually, what are we doing here?'
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we → stop → what
Stitching together commercials, real and imagined, was a challenge but a crucial "part of the record's DNA", says Chater.
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Chater → stitch → DNA
…and 27 more, not listed.
The Aporia