The Avalanches - 'Reflecting Light'

Aussie electronic duo, The Avalanches, released one of the past year's most eclectic and ambitious albums with We Will Always Love You.

The album is a dense mix of samples and original instrumentation, featuring a diverse range of guest performers, from Leon Bridges and MGMT to Tricky and Rivers Cuomo.

The album's 25 tracks are packed to the brim with short interludes and fully-formed cosmic pop songs.

An early standout for me is the song, "Reflecting Light", featuring vocals from Sananda Maitreya--formerly known as '80s hitmaker Terence Trent D'Arby (remember "Wishing Well"?).

The track also samples British folk singer Vashti Bunyan's stunningly delicate 1970 song, "Glow Worms".

"Reflecting Light" is a lush and achingly soulful song, accented by Maitreya's emotional vocal delivery, and interspersed with abrupt whistle stops.

The Avalanches printed an extremely limited run (12 copies) of the single on 7" X-ray film, as a tribute to the "bone records" of the Soviet era--a process where banned records from the western world were cut onto x-ray film and smuggled into the USSR, so as to avoid being caught by customs officials.

The X-ray pressing of "Reflecting Light" showed the dislocated fingers of skateboarding hero Tony Hawk, and Hawk himself gave away a copy for a fundraiser.

Listen to "Reflecting Light" in the YouTube clip below:

To listen to the original Vashti Bunyan song, "Glow Worms", sampled by the Avalanches, Click Here.