The Avalanches, an Australian music group known for their use of nostalgic samples, discuss their new album "No Bad Memories" with Double J's Karen Leng. The album, which features sounds from old advertisements and outdated technology, aims to evoke emotional responses through familiar auditory cues. Co-founder Robbie Chater explains how these sounds can transport listeners back in time despite the passage of decades. The trio, now including Andy Szekeres after losing several members since their debut "Since I Left You" in 2000, highlights the album's diverse range of collaborators and samples, emphasizing both the joyous and sentimental aspects of their work.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-10,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
A few familiar notes – the startup sound of an old computer, an antique advertising jingle – and suddenly you're teleported to the past.
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you → teleport → past
The Avalanches know this power intimately.
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Avalanches → know → power
And their new album weaponises it.
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album → weaponise → it
"Everybody has a commercial they hear, a cereal or soft drink tune from 30 years ago, and it just transports them," Avalanches co-founder Robbie Chater tells Double J's Karen Leng.
"It's phenomenal how it sticks with you over so long.
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it → have → you
You think you've forgotten it and then it hits."
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it → think → it
Nostalgia has been crucial to the Australian group since 2000's Since I Left You, their groundbreaking debut constructed from thousands of obscure analogue samples, made them unlikely stars.
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them → leave → samples
It took 16 mythical years, and losing four members, to make a sequel: the warm, psychedelic Wildflower and its panoply of not just samples but rappers and singers.
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It → take → samples
We Will Always Love You in 2020 was a cosmic masterpiece inspired by the star-crossed romance of scientists Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.
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Love → love → scientists
Now a trio – co-founders Chater, Tony Di Blasi and new member Andy Szekeres – they find inspiration in the past on new album No Bad Memories, mining sounds from outdated technology and advertising and their ability to trigger emotional impact.
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they → find → impact
"It's a special power," says Szekeres.
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Szekeres → say → ?
"A sound that can instantly take millions of people back to this intense feeling of emotion that's separate from the product.
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that → take → product
"
Even the album's title is sampled, from a 1980s ad for an obsolete medium most under 30 wouldn't recognise: floppy disks.
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30 → sample → medium
"It's spruiking the quality of their data storage," says Chater.
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Chater → spruike → storage
It was a working title [but] began to take on another meaning."
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It → work → meaning
Talent and technology
Spanning 31 tracks, No Bad Memories has everything fans love about The Avalanches.
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fans → span → Avalanches
A dense fantasia that's joyful, funky, soulful yet capable of tugging on the heartstrings and boasting another all-star cast of guests.
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that → tug → guests
An overlooked bridge from Carly Simon's Make Me Feel Something becomes the sparkling centrepiece of One More Fantasy, an Avalanches specialty.
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Me → make → Fantasy
Lead single Together unites electronic acts Nikki Nair, Jessy Lanza and viral musician Prentiss with video game-y synths and a children's chorus liberated from a '70s TV adaptation of Enid Blyton's The Famous Five.
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single → unite → Five
Its fizzy rhythm is threaded with mouse clicks, loading data, camera shutters and jingles for Nokia and Toshiba.
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rhythm → thread → Nokia
It's a kaleidoscopic album where legacy acts and emerging talent co-mingle with forgotten jingles and the physical clicking, whirring and static of antiquated devices.
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acts → emerge → devices
"The sounds our generation knows," notes Chater, "also, when it goes wrong."
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it → know → ?
Szekeres adds: "I still have trauma … Like, a zip disk drive plugged into a sampler that stopped working.
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that → add → sampler
The dreaded Windows error and malfunctioning hardware are among the record's numerous Easter eggs.
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error → malfunction → eggs
Where The Avalanches once dug through op-shop vinyl crates for inspiration, No Bad Memories sent them down YouTube rabbit holes.
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Memories → dig → holes
We need to be excited to give us the energy to make a project because obviously it's lots of archival work; very time-consuming," says Chater.
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Chater → need → work
The resulting tapestry thrives in whimsy, melancholy and imagination.
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tapestry → result → whimsy
A bittersweet soundtrack that both critiques and celebrates how consumer culture sells emotion, not just product.
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culture → critique → emotion
"You're growing up and its capitalism coming at you.
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capitalism → grow → you
You don't have a choice of whether you absorb all this messaging or not," says Chater.
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Chater → have → messaging
"But then also a lot of the ads are really beautiful – the photography, that saturated colour – and the jingles stick in your mind.
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jingles → stick → mind
"I love how I'm not even sure how I feel about it.
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I → love → it
Because on one hand, we've been sold this impossible dream.
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we → sell → dream
And on the other hand, I remember it fondly."
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I → remember → it
The three estimate they "probably made more [ads] than we sampled".
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we → estimate → ads
With visual artist Jonathan Zawada, they conjured Takumi Digital Archives, a fictional company behind walkmans, cameras, shampoo, magazines, you name it.
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you → conjure → it
They built an interactive website, cast The Sixth Sense star Haley Joel Osment as a Takumi employee for promotional videos and made physical prototypes to market the album.
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They → build → album
"You can really go off on a tangent.
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You → go → tangent
'Maybe we're going to start actually making these products,'" Szekeres recalls.
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Szekeres → go → products
"Then you stop and go, 'actually, what are we doing here?'
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we → stop → what
Stitching together commercials, real and imagined, was a challenge but a crucial "part of the record's DNA", says Chater.
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Chater → stitch → DNA
…and 27 more, not listed.
The Aporia