No Bad Memories
The Avalanches
Modular Recordings, 2026
There are bands, and then there are institutions. The Avalanches belong firmly in the second category. Formed in Melbourne in 1997, they rewired Australian music with 2000’s Since I Left You, a sample-crazed marvel that turned thousands of borrowed fragments into one of the most joyous records this country has produced. After a famously long silence, they returned with Wildflower in 2016 and We Will Always Love You in 2020, proving that their strange, warm, collage sound had lost none of its magic. Nearly three decades on, they remain one of Australia’s most distinctive musical exports.
No Bad Memories, their fourth album, is another gloriously odd creation. Across 31 tracks in just over 50 minutes, Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi build a world from floppy disks, Nokia tones, computer start-up chimes, old advertisements and half-remembered jingles. It is a record about the sounds that live in our heads without permission, and it turns that cluttered cultural attic into something funky, emotional and often beautiful. The guest list is typically enormous, with Jamie xx, Karen O, Panda Bear, Carly Simon and others drifting through the mix, yet the album never feels like a parade of famous names. It feels like a broadcast from a kinder, stranger universe.
At its best, No Bad Memories is wonderful. “Together” flips a familiar phone sound into a dancefloor rush, while “Can’t Get Over Losing You” and “Blue Shadows” show that beneath all the samples and static, The Avalanches remain exceptional writers of sweet, sad pop songs. The short interludes and advertising fragments give the record its personality, though they occasionally interrupt the flow. That unusual rhythm through the album can be a drawback for many listeners. It is ambitious, inventive and full of heart, but it can feel a little overstuffed, like channel-surfing through a beautifully bespoke daydream.
Still, what a thrill it is to have them back. In an era when so much music feels assembled by committee, The Avalanches continue to make records that could only come from a particular group of people with a particular obsession. They are not chasing trends or retreating into nostalgia. They are digging through it, rearranging it and making it dance.
That is the real excitement here. Quality bands do not always stay together, and quality ideas do not always survive long careers. The Avalanches have done both. No Bad Memories may be messy in places, but it feels alive in every second, and it reminds us why this band matters so much to Australian music.
