Not to sound like an aged hippy, but every album is a journey, usually a rainbow-splattered, slightly psychedelic one full of U-turns and unexpected twists. The past decade has been an interesting one for the Australian duo. Sixteen long years after 2000’s genre-defying debut came the sunshine-soaked ‘Wildflower’, followed in 2020 by the introspective, spectral ‘We Will Always Love You’: two records every bit as brilliant. They may not be the most prolific of outfits, partly down to the endless samples and collaborations, but every album has been unique, special and somewhat timeless.
Which brings us to ‘No Bad Memories’, perhaps their most erratic and bonkers release yet, and one dripping with just as much brilliance. Where those records basked in sunshine and looked inward, this one turns outward, to the jingles and logos that soundtrack our lives. It was inspired by “the simultaneously magical and insidious ways that advertising and name-brand technology wraps itself around our memories”, an “ambivalent ode to the nostalgic pull of commercial jingles, proprietary start-up sounds and long-forgotten audio logos”. The result feels like wandering through the shopping mall of your youth, or an airport, perhaps drifting off in front of late-night TV. Add real fun and danceable grooves and you have an incredibly fresh dance record that mines memory, capitalism and ambient noise: a brilliant concept wrapped in cotton candy and technicolour.
Samples about corporate takeovers give way to soul-flavoured bangers featuring , while interview segments with American musician, sound designer and composer are woven into a truly joyous number that brings a tear to the eye, it’s so uplifting. Ciani is a fitting presence: her pioneering work creating audio identities for the likes of Coca-Cola and Atari helped define the sonic language of modern advertising.
Elsewhere, ‘Can’t Get Over Losing You’ ft. is a real highlight, and one of the finest pop moments of the band’s career. The guest list is a who’s who of artists who know their way around digital debris: vocalists such as , and sit alongside glitchtronica pioneer , “deconstructed club” maven , founder and Tunisian footwork maverick .
At 31 tracks, the runtime might seem daunting, but like its predecessors this isn’t an album to pick and choose from. It’s a ride, and a gloriously disorientating one. Step on, take the whole thing in, and feel your mood shift dramatically by the final track.
Mad, joyous and utterly absorbing, ‘No Bad Memories’ proves that more than two decades on, The Avalanches can still surprise, and still make a concept this heady feel like pure play.
9/10