AUSSIE DUO ROBBIE CHATER & DAREN SELTMANN RELEASED THEIR FIRST ALBUM AS THE AVALANCHES ALMOST 17 YEARS AGO TO UNANIMOUS ACCLAIM. They didn’t get around to releasing a follow up until 2016, and to quell demand from 17 years worth of new fans, S.I.L.Y. is finally getting a full reissue. The album was conceived in response to the big room dance music of the time (The Chemical Brothers, specifically) as the duo sought to work with a more eclectic palette in order to capture the wall-of-sound aesthetic of Phil Spector and The Beach Boys. In contrast to most “sample records”, the duo rejected “rare record culture” and instead pilfered their crates for anything and everything (the band claim that there are over 3,500 samples, other sources downplay this estimate to around 900), no matter how common or recognizable the sources may have been (“no one is ever going to hear it anyway” was their outlook). Any major artist you can think of from the past 50 years will probably show up on this record in the form of a guitar stab, a drum loop, a cough and so on. Their kitchen-sink sample collages warp and bend from fuzzy pop to baroque boom-bap and introverted disco edits with style and ease. Fans of Endtroducing, Madlib, Dilla’s Donuts and Panda Bear’s Person Pitch: you need this!

• black double vinyl pressing
• housed in gatefold sleeve
• music label: Astralwerks 2017

reviewed by dj winyl destination 01/2017