Record shopping with the Avalanches

Oh, to go record-shopping with the Avalanches in 1999! We go back in time to a year before the release of the band’s breakthrough album Since I Left You (2000), via a short film directed by Philippe Charluet for ABC Education/ Film Australia's ARTZONE TV series. In this scene, the Melbourne band takes us on one of their sample hunts and talks us through how they stitch together fragments from ‘the weirdest records you can find’.  

The Avalanches were pioneers of a genre dubbed ‘plunderphonics’; their artful collage of found sounds produced tracks that felt like something transmitted from radio stations beyond the stars. And it all began in the bargain bins. 

As the band combs the stacks in a vintage store, we get a sense of their camaraderie and – as they linger over surf rock, big-band harmonies, thrash metal and Nana Mouskouri – of the eclectic elements they assembled to create their still-fresh sound.