25-years ago The Avalanches blew my mind with their Since I Left You single and album of the same name. Friends and I went to see them at The Arches. Memories are vague. After all, we ended up in Alaska on Bath Lane until closing.
I stumbled into work at 11am the following day, with the excuse that I had broken my glasses at a gig and had to get them repaired that morning. My boss just smiled. He knew I'd had a night on it. Thankfully I played fives with him and we had a good relationship. Everything was cool!
I'd woken up that morning to discover I'd bought a mixtape at the merch desk. As I put it on, when I got back from work, memories came back of The Avalanches mixing in Madonna's Holiday, Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On and Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone early in their set. After that ... I seem to remember a lot of jumping and bouncing on stage and in the crowd. There were a lot of people in The Avalanches live set up. Later that year I went down to see two of them DJ at Sankeys Soap in Manchester. At one point they dropped in Queen's I Want To Break Free. Half the crowd went with it, while the other half paused for a moment to ask ... are they really playing ....?
The mixtape I had bought was entitled GIMIX, essentially a bootleg/alternate universe version of Since I Left You. The Avalanches weren't thinking about a commercial international release for the mix/album they were working on, they weren't documenting the samples (over 3,500) they were using, they were simply having fun and attempting to make the best and coolest music they possibly could.
So on GIMIX, a promo release in 2000, The Avalanches weren't limited by the sample clearances that eventually stripped back the commercial album. Even they don't have a record of everything they used.
GIMIX was way ahead of its time. A couple of years ahead of As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt II by Too Many DJ's that received a commercial release - albeit like an "official bootleg".
GIMIX begins with Since I Left You, complete with some extra dialogue that didn't make/wasn't cleared for the album. We then head off on the trip of a lifetime as The Avalanches take listeners on a ride through 80's pop, iconic 60's tracks, classic hip hop, The Smiths, Hendrix ... underground house and overground electronic dance by Detroit Grand Pubahs and Fatboy Slim, merging into Hall & Oattes, a dash of Sgt. Peppers - the guitar and then the song speeded up, Deee-lite ...
Flowing as one continuous, chaotic work of art, this mix is utterly magical. Vinyl crackles just add to the whole vibe and magic. The Avalanches skill to not only find and select samples to create new music and mix them all together is spell binding.
We veer back to Holiday by Madonna and some more music by The Avalanches, or samples that became the bedrock of songs on the album. A Different Feeling kicks in with even more euphoria than when it appears on the album. Michael Jackson's Billie Jean cuts like a knife, fleeting, then the groove comes back in. It hits the spot.
Closing with their own gloriously trippy Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life into a fading Holiday by Madonna spliced with Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, you don't want it to end. GIMIX is 45-minutes of genius.
GIMIX is famously difficult to tracklist. However, here are the major landmarks and samples.
Listen to GIMIX on Soundcloud
GIMIX - A mixtape by The Avalanches
The Avalanches - Since I Left You
Madonna - Holiday
Trini Lopez - A-me-ri-ca (Live at PJ's)
Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
The Avalanches - Stay Another Season
The Avalanches - Two Hearts in 3/4 Time
De La Soul - A Roller Skating Jam Named "Saturdays"
Blowfly - Rapp Dirty
Richard Pryor - Richard Pryor Dialogue (from Car Wash)
Ol' Dirty Bastard feat. Kelis - Got Your Money
Roy Ayers - Love Will Bring Us Back Together
Kid Creole and the Coconuts - Stool Pigeon
The Button Down Brass feat. Ray Davies - Quiller
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Crosstown Traffic
Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Thomas Bangalter - Turbo
Thee Maddkatt Courtship III - Excerpt: Welcome 2...
The Smiths - The Boy with the Thorn in His Side
Thomas Bangalter - Extra Dry
Men at Work - Down Under
De La Soul - Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) (Party Line Mix)
The Avalanches - Electricity
A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxation
Daft Punk - Oh Yeah
Detroit Grand Pubahs - Sandwiches
Daryl Hall & John Oates - I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)
Fatboy Slim - Fucking in Heaven
Unknown - Unknown
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Jurassic 5 - Jayou
Deee-Lite - Groove Is in the Heart
Gonzales - Real Motherfuckin' Music
The Avalanches - Little Journey
The Avalanches - Diners Only
The Avalanches - A Different Feeling
The Avalanches - Pablo's Cruise
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
Paperclip People - The Climax
Instant Funk - I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl)
Fela Kuti and Ginger Baker - Ye Ye De Smell
Electric Light Orchestra - Livin' Thing
Mike Curb Congregation - Mickey Mouse March (from DJ Riz's "Live from Brooklyn, Part 1")
Michael Wycoff - Looking Up to You (from DJ Riz's "Live from Brooklyn, Part 1")
Os Tres Morais - Freio Aerodinamico
Fern Kinney - Together We Are Beautiful
The Avalanches - Tonight May Have to Last Me All My Life
Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
No comments:
Post a Comment