The Avalanches' Since I Left You

Since I Left You captures the fraught moment in popular music history as reflected in and anticipated by the debut studio album from electronic music group The Avalanches.

Since I Left You holds a reputation amongst its advocates that exceeds nearly all of its closest peers. Despite the inordinate amount of attention this album has received, it has never been thoroughly examined in context. While repeatedly celebrated for its artistry, technical skill, and emotional resonance—particularly its sample-based material and then-cutting-edge technological feats within the electronic music genre—it has never been definitively placed in the world that produced it.

Charles Fairchild studies this album in a way no one else has. Since I Left You is placed in its historical, technological, and cultural contexts, examined for the social and aesthetic attributes it was said to possess at the time of its release. There is a focus on the clear set of aesthetic aspirations that guided the album's creators and how those creators pasted together the fragments of many sound worlds.