Since I Left You (2000)

Since I Left You is the debut studio album by Australian electronic music group The Avalanches, released on 27 November 2000 by Modular Recordings. It was produced by group members Robbie Chater and Darren Seltmann (under the pseudonym Bobbydazzler), and samples extensively from various genres. The album was recorded and produced at two separate, near-identical studios by Chater and Seltmann, exchanging audio mixes of records they sampled.

After the album's positive reception in Australia, the duo considered an international release – its date was held back until 2001 in the United Kingdom and North America and appeared in slightly altered forms. The delay and changes occurred so that the group could obtain permission to use the samples or use replacements. Four singles were released from the album: "Electricity", "Frontier Psychiatrist", "Since I Left You", and "Radio". The group promoted the album by organising headlining tours in Australia, Europe and the United States.

Since I Left You was acclaimed by critics. It peaked in the top 30 on the ARIA Albums Chart, number 12 in Norway, number eight on the UK Albums Chart and, in the United States, at number ten on the Top Electronic Albums chart and in the top 40 on the Top Heatseekers chart. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2001, it won in four categories: Breakthrough Artist – Album, Best Dance Release, Producer of the Year for Bobbydazzler, and Breakthrough Artist – Single for "Frontier Psychiatrist". Since I Left You became one of the best-reviewed albums of the 2000s, and was listed at number ten in the book 100 Best Australian Albums.

Production

The Avalanches began work on the album in 1999 under the working title Pablo's Cruise, primarily working with a Yamaha Promix 01 and Akai S2000 samplers. Group members Darren Seltmann and Robbie Chater spent hours sampling music from vinyl records to create the songs on the album: Chater has estimated that there are over 3,500 samples that were used overall although some estimate the number to be much lower, roughly 900. After sampling and arranging, the pair would swap their tapes, listen to each other's ideas, and expand on whatever they had heard. Despite working separately, both Chater and Seltmann had nearly identical studio set-ups.

Initially, Seltmann and Chater were not planning for an international release. They were not concerned with copyright restrictions and so did not keep a list of which tracks were being sampled. According to Chater, they "were really unorganised and were just sampling on the fly as tracks progressed ... We had no idea the record would get such a wide-scale release so we saw no need to keep track of what we were using – we were definitely guilty of harbouring a 'No-one's going to listen to it anyway' sort of attitude." The sources span many different styles of music, sampling artists such as Françoise Hardy, Blowfly, Sérgio Mendes, Raekwon, Wayne and Shuster, and Madonna. Seltmann felt that "he more rejected and unwanted the record that a sample comes from, the more appealing it is, I guess it's almost a reaction to rare record finding, but occasionally things like 'Holiday' come up". He described how making sample tapes for each other created some samples which were intended as "funny samples" that they had no original intention to get clearance for. In particular, Madonna's song "Holiday" was "one of those where we put something together, ended it with "Holiday" and all had a big laugh. It ended up where we couldn't live without it so I guess we just had to make that one work". Later, Seltmann and Chater had a few problems when trying to clear all the samples. One sample that had to be removed was from Rodgers and Hammerstein in the intro that featured harps and girls singing. After checking clearances, "he album is slightly different to its original form in that it had a whole new introduction, which apparently was really recognisable, so we had to take that off straight away". The Avalanches worked with sample-clearance expert Pat Shannahan to clear the thousands of samples in the record. The group played their songs to flatmates to get input on which tracks were worth including on the album. "Electricity" was the first song the group felt that worked; it was a last-minute addition to the album as The Avalanches felt the song "still sounds good". In February 2000, Seltmann (as Dazzler) and Chater (as Bobby C) finished production on the album under the pseudonym Bobbydazzler, and its official title was revealed as Since I Left You in March 2000.