File : The Avalanches
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( COVID-19 )
Update
For the safety of our community and its people , Impact Fuel Room will be closed and all shows rescheduled and postponed for the time being .
We are grateful for many of our customers who have purchased tickets to these shows , and we will be reaching out with updates as we learn more .
The Avalanches
Build a better mousetrap , and the world will beat a path to your door ,” goes the old Emersonattributed adage . And Australian producer-multi-instrumentalist Robbie Chater can definitely relate . Back in 2000 , his unassuming but ambitious little electronic trio The Avalanches came up with a debut disc like no other before it , the buzz-crackling “ Since I Left You ,” cobbled together from over 3,500 mostly-obscure vinyl samples . And the music industry took notice . Hip Down Under radio station Triple J began spinning its scratchy oddity of a single , “ Frontier Psychiatrist ” non stop , until it rocketed into the Top 10 , and one year later , the outfit took home four Grammy-equivalent ARIA Music Awards , including Best New Artist for single and album . As it was gradually unveiled around the globe , scaling the charts in Britain , Japan , and America , the album took on an almost mythological quality . It was a complicated but remarkably effective mousetrap that no one had realy seen before .
There was just one little problem . How could Chater ever manage to top — or even equal — such a prestigious introductory achievement ? Believe it or not , nearly two decades would pass before
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01 • 2021
he and his bassist-vocalist cohort Tony Di Blasi in The Avalanches — which had pared down to a duo — were finally able to answer that question with a sophomore followup , 2016 ’ s Wildflower , which hit so many snags ( including a few stints in rehab after recurring battles with the bottle ) he ’ s hard pressed to remember them all . Chater would never rest on his laurels again . The Avalanches jumped wholeheartedly into the record ’ s new December-issued followup , We Will Always Love You , and found that top-notch artists from around the world were not only huge fans , but ready to make that jump , too . MGMT and Johnny Marr punched in on “ The Divine Chord ,” Perry Farrell helped with “ Oh the Sunn !,” Karen O chimes in for “ Dial D for Devotion , and Jamie XX , Neneh Cherry , and Clypso beef up the mix on “ Wherever You Go .” Over 25 generous tracks , well-wishers like Tricky , Blood Orange , Rivers Cuomo , and Leon Bridges chime in , and most telling of all is Clash axeman Mick Jones on “ We Go On ” ( with Cola Boyy ), as it was Jones ’ sample-heavy spinoff combo Big Audio Dynamite that first gave a teenage Chater , now 45 , the idea that he could jerry-rig his own music at home in Melbourne . He checked in right before Christmas to discuss how far he ’ s come since .
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IE : I was actually in Sydney , Australia in early 2001 , and The Avalanches were everywhere . Every record store had “ Since I Left You ” on its main display racks , radio was playing you constantly . I bought a copy and brought it home . Then : 16 years of silence ? What happened ? ROBBIE CHATER : In the 16 years ? Well , speaking of technology , that was pre-YouTube , and records back then were released the old-fashioned way . And Since I Left You came out in England in 2001 , and then it came out later in the States . So we were still traveling around promoting it in 2003 , 2004 . So in a nutshell , it was a combination of things that led to a personal creative block that became a massive creative mountain to climb . And I think that , as the years went on , it was almost like because we didn ’ t follow up Since I Left You right away , the myth around it grew , and the longer we didn ’ t follow it up , the bigger it loomed in our minds , and the more people seemed to reflect on what a special record t was . And I often wonder — would it have grown to such status if we ’ d followed it up 18 months ater with another record or something ? And we ’ ll never know the answer to that . But the journey of Wildflower really was one of … well , a very sharp learning curve for me , personally , to learn about where my expression comes from and who I am as an artist . And to learn that an effort doesn ’ t nec-
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