The Avalanches are all about waiting. It was not long after the squashing of the Y2K bug that they released Since I Left You, that sprawling cavalcade of an album that ruled every house party in the 2000s. It was entirely its own: part danceable dreamscape, part electric luau, something new stitched together from the past, using samples old enough to prompt nostalgia and obscure enough to stoke amusement.
Since I Left You was a rare critical and commercial hit, and a record that stood up to closer scrutiny and repeated listening. You could flog it on rotation without killing its appeal. There was no filler in a cohesive vision. People wondered what a second album would bring, then waited 16 years for it. In the interim, band members dropped away. Various configurations of the Avalanches did play live, but not often. They were the most elusive of big-name bands.
