The Avalanches: Influences

The scope of what goes into making an Avalanches album—thousands of samples, newly recorded loops, featured vocalists, collaborations and more—makes it almost impossible to discern the Melbourne group's broader musical influences from their sheer love of finding wildly varied sounds. Luckily, the legendary crate diggers have made it a little easier by sharing their biggest influences in this playlist. Here, you’ll find songs that have been sampled in their own tracks, others written or remixed by close friends and personal heroes, and, simply, some of their all-time favourites. Below, Robbie Chater talks about some of the stories behind the playlist’s highlights. The Roches, “Hammond Song” “This is an absolutely transcendent track. We love the sound of the three sisters’ voices harmonising together. Produced by Robert Fripp, who also provided the guitar solo, ‘Hammond Song’ was first played to us by a dear friend in Japan. We immediately set about sampling it, and it eventually became the cornerstone of our album We Will Always Love You.” The Beach Boys, “All I Wanna Do” “This is probably our favourite song of all time and the closest thing we know to sonic perfection. Such a gloriously floating production, heartfelt lyrics and a chord change to die for. This really is like going to church and remains hauntingly beautiful all these years later.” Cornelius, “Mic Check” “Keigo [Oyamada] is a dear friend and wonderfully inspiring musician and person. His album Fantasma came out as we were beginning work on Since I Left You, and we felt like we had found a kindred spirit. To work with him on our latest album all these years later was really something else. Thank you, Keigo.” Moodymann, “Music People” “This never fails to get people moving whenever we play it in a club. Moodymann flips some old samples brilliantly here while also bringing something new and unique to the production. He's a hero of ours and is one of those great artists whose deep catalogue always has something new or obscure to discover.” my bloody valentine, “Soon (Andrew Weatherall Mix)” “One of the great remixes of all time and a fitting way to remember the great Andrew Weatherall by including it on this list. Andrew has been incredibly influential to a whole new generation of DJs and producers, and of course him twisting my bloody valentine in new and strange ways is a match made in heaven.”