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On Fridays this year, we ask...

What's in the Box?

The Box in question is the glovebox of my car, home to my extremely motley tape collection. By the time I owned a car with a tape player tapes were on the way out and most of my music was in CD format. However, charity shops were practically giving tapes away, which meant that I bought rapaciously and eclectically. A half-remembered 80s band who once released a single I'd liked a little ? A band I'd vaguely heard of ? An unknown group with good cover art ? Bring them on.

Of course, the net result is that I've ended up with a tape collection which any music-lover would be slightly ashamed of. There was a relatively narrow window (late 70s to later 80s) when tapes were big news, and my horde represents that. However, in amongst the terrible pop I've found some gems and I reckon its time to come clean about my guilty musical secrets.

Today in The Box we have:

Avalanches - Since I Left You

Take thousands of samples, bake at Gas 5 for a few hours, and you'll have made an Avalanches album. They did, around a decade ago, and it's still happily spinning round in my car stereo.

Actually, the main problem with this album is that many of tracks feature the characteristic "eeeeeuuuuuw" noise of someone fiddling with playback speed. Every time I hear it I think my tape deck's finally given up, before I remember that it's meant to sound like that.

If you've never heard the Avalanches before, think layer upon layer of samples, lots of violins, and almost always a neighing horse.

I think the best known Avalanches tracks are Since I Left You and Frontier Psychiatrist[*] - the former is also one of my favourites.

Avalanches - Since I Left You

(Owing to a combination of segue, inattention and lack of editing software you actually get about 10 seconds of the next track in that as well. Sorry.)

[Poll #1217660]

[*] The only other track to feature the word "psychosomatic".

Date: 2008-07-15 08:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] undyingking.livejournal.com
(Was on hol last week) I thought this album was absolutely brilliant when I first was introduced to it by my Australian cousin. Still like it lots but I guess the rest of pop has caught up with it to some extent.

You could do a new topic of "words that are used in the lyrics of exactly two well-known songs"...

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