★★★★★
It’s been 16 years.
16 long and painful years for fans of the geniuses who gave us Since I Left You, which ironically allowed The Avalanches to fall off the face of the Earth. No shows, no announcements – nothing. Until now.
Wildflower is an album that gives a spirit to the hopeless, an outlet for the weird and the wonderful to get lost in, over and over. Lead single ‘Frankie Sinatra’ exemplifies the band’s unpredictability by employing a calypso-laced beat, as wordsmiths Danny Brown and MF Doom lay down whacked-out verses that almost conjure vivid hallucinations of a descent into madness. The song smoothly transitions into ‘Subways’, which gives vintage fans a glimpse of greatness – a groovy-as-hell bassline coupled with a sample of 1980s teenage punk princess Chandra that improves with every listen.
Backmasking adds to the psychedelic experience that tracks like ‘Zap!’ and ‘Colours’ bring to the record, while ‘The Noisy Eater’ sees Biz Markie munching and rhyming about cereal over a pitch-shifted Beatles sample.
There are countless samples and features on this album that will only be discovered with time, but that’s the beauty of The Avalanches.
Wildflower byThe Avalanchesis out now on Modular/EMI.
