Album Review: The Avalanches - Wildflower

4/5

One of pop’s most enduring mysteries has been the disappearance for 16 years of Melbourne electro crew The Avalanches. Their 2000 break-out album, Since I Left You, seemed to herald a new dawn for sample-based music, with its gleeful juxtaposition of Kid Creole, Jimmy Webb, John Cale, and the Osmonds. Silence followed, suggesting that, having delivered a definitive artistic statement, the group had nothing left to say.

But now, with little fanfare, they’re back, with a project that builds joyously on past achievements even as it refuses to lean too heavily on them. Opener ‘Because I’m Me’ splices pre-rock ’n’ roll, r’n’b, and rhymes from hip hop duo Camp Lo; ‘Colours’ is one of three numbers pairing Mercury Rev’s Jonathan Donohue’s sad-hipster croon with fluttering, melancholic grooves.