Music Makes Me High Frontier Psychiatrist Frankie Sinatra The Avalanches

Music Makes Me High Album: We Will Always Love You (2020)
Frontier Psychiatrist Album: Since I Left You (2000)
Frankie Sinatra Album: Wildflower (2016)
by The Avalanches

We Will Always Love You is the third studio album from Australian electronic group The Avalanches, released on 11 December 2020 through Modular Recordings. It is their last album release with the Modular label before signing with Columbia Records in 2025.

The Avalanches (Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi) released their second studio album, Wildflower, in 2016. As the album came 16 years after their debut, Since I Left You, the group felt they now had a clean slate to work on new material. While on tour for Wildflower in early 2017, Chater left the tour to battle his alcoholism at a detox facility. Di Blasi continued the tour with a full backing band. After the tour was completed, they began work on a new album. Before production began, Chater sold most of his collection of 7,000 records to nurture a fresh start.

"Music Makes Me High" (track 15) is a stylistic throwback to older house music, like that found on the label Crydamoure or Basement Jaxx's debut album Remedy (1999). The lead sample from Salty Miller reminded Chater of "Red Alert."

"Frontier Psychiatrist" was released on 21 August 2000 as the second single from the group's debut album Since I Left You. Produced by Avalanches members Robbie Chater and Darren Seltmann, under their production alias Bobbydazzler, the track is built around many sampled elements, much like other tracks from its parent album. Samples include prominent vocal samples of the sketch "Frontier Psychiatrist" by comedy duo Wayne and Shuster, and an orchestral background sourced from an Enoch Light version of the composition "My Way of Life" (1968).

Upon release, it peaked at number 18 on the UK Singles Chart and number 49 in the group's native Australia, becoming their first single to enjoy commercial success. "Frontier Psychiatrist" was well received by music critics, who praised the Avalanches' use of samples.

According to group members, "Frontier Psychiatrist" was not planned beforehand by the group and in their words, "happened from us just messing around." Group members Robbie Chater and Darren Seltmann were driving figures in the production of the album, spending months scouring Melbourne's "old record stores for old records" and spending hours sampling music from the records they found to create. The duo primarily worked with a Yamaha Promix 01 and Akai S2000 samplers. Dexter Fabay, turntablist and keyboardist for the band, brainstormed the idea for "Frontier Psychiatrist", and his scratching is heard prominently on the track.

"Frontier Psychiatrist" is built around several elements sampled from other music; Chater and Seltmann, who produced the track, sampled music from several vinyl records in the production and creation of Since I Left You. The track also makes prominent use of scratching done by the band's turntablist Dexter Fabay.

The prominent orchestral sample heard throughout the track is sourced from a recording by the Enoch Light Singers of the 1968 composition "My Way of Life", originally composed by Bert Kaempfert, Herbert Rehbein and Carl Sigman.

The track also contains several vocal samples of Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster, the most prominent of these samples taken from the duo's comedy routine "Frontier Psychiatrist", as well as the John Waters movie Polyester.

Only the aforementioned three samples are credited in the liner notes of Since I Left You; various other uncredited samples are used in the track, with sources ranging from Harvey Mandel's 1968 cover of the spiritual "Wade in the Water" and comedy routines by Flip Wilson, to sketches from Sesame Street and Maurice Jarre's main theme from Lawrence of Arabia.

The closing mariachi band plays "El Negro Zumbón", first performed by Flo Sandon's, who doubles Silvana Mangano in the 1951 movie Anna.

The first single released by The Avalanches in sixteen years, Frankie Sinatra features rhymes from Detroit rapper Danny Brown and British-born hip hop recording artist MF Doom. The song has been in the works since at least 2012 and marks the first time the band has released music with original vocals.
Brown spoke about the collaboration in an interview with Pitchfork: "They [the Avalanches] contacted my manager," he said. "I knew of them, but I can't say I was that deep into their music. But I went back and studied it, and it's just amazing. I am ecstatic about that s--t."
Speaking with Zane Lowe, The Avalanches explained why they chose to work with Danny Brown.

"We wanted to make this record still sound like us but to be a bit more loose and rock and roll," they said. "The initial plan was to make a crazy loose rock record, but with samples. Danny's voice is almost like a punk rock voice sometimes, so we thought it'd be perfect."

The hook is a sample of "Bobby Sox Idol," a song recorded by calypso singer Wilmoth Houdini in 1947. There's also an interlude containing "My Favorite Things" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound Of Music.

The Avalanches' Tony Di Blasi told ABC the "Favourite Things"' sample is his favorite part of the song, "because growing up with five brothers and sisters we used to all watch musicals and The Sound of Music was one of the favourites. We were like little Von Trapp family singers ourselves."

The accompanying video was directed by Fleur & Manu (Drake, A$AP Rocky, M83), and shot on location in the bayou of New Orleans. The clip shows locals at a county fair tripping out on hallucinogenic ice-cream. According to publicity materials it, "draws inspiration from southern swamp culture."