Caught in the Net: Avalanches are on a roll

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Avalanches

In late 2000, the Avalanches released Since I Left You, a psychedelic dance album made from thousands of samples all cut up together in a delirious brew.

A follow-up record is yet to emerge. Last week on Twitter (@TheAvalanches), they offered up a link to a new mixtape (bit.ly/IqUBHm). Called "Sleepy Bedtime Mix for Young Ones" and attributed to a Charles Bukowski character, its style, tone and reference points all seem at one with the band's album. But the songs roll out largely uncut, not jumbled up as in previous work. Whether it heralds something brand new is a mystery.

We need to talk about Kevin's tardiness

My Bloody Valentine make The Avalanches look like amateurs when it comes to the time lag after releasing a seminal album. It's 21 years since Loveless appeared. Kevin Shields has hinted that a new album and EP are on the way this year, but we've been here before. Next week sees the release of remastered versions of the band's two era-defining albums of guitar-soaked noise and their EPs from 1988 to 1991. Pitchfork is streaming one track from the EPs at bit.ly/IoH7kJ: "Good for You" features familiar waves of

Lush music for all ages

The Canadian electro-pop artist D'Eon has been knocking out free ambient music with reckless abandon. Last week saw the release of Music for Keyboards Vol II, which can be freely downloaded at bit.ly/JmO4MG. The music has a minimalist, Philip Glass-like feel but here's the kicker: D'Eon claims all 14 pieces are piano variations of Blink 182's pop-punk track "What's My Age Again?" As moronic as that sounds, he manages to turn out some rather beautiful sounds.

Last night a French site saved my life

Running since last September, the French site tensongsthatsavedyourlife. com invites musicians, artists, writers, fashion people and so on to list "10 songs that saved their lives". They are posted on the site with the chance to listen to them on the official. fm music-sharing site. I enjoyed James Murphy's 10, a collection in keeping with his LCD Soundsystem oeuvre. Everyone from dance act Justice to artist David Shrigley have offered lists.