I was out with my UK travel mate and bought another 2 CDs today. One is a Valen Hsu compilation (one of a rare handful of Chinese CDs I've got). It's difficult for me to acquire Chinese or classical music since I'm virtually clueless about both; so when I do, it's mostly by gut feel.

But it's the other album I bought which made my day. I bought Avalanches' Since I Left You. This dance album was so well favoured it was named the album of the month for a couple of music magazines like Jockey Slut, NME, Mixmag, Uncut and Ministry. Knowing this, I've got high expectations for this album and it doesn't disappoint.

The CD cover art intrigued me from the start. It's a painting of people escaping in row boats from a sinking ship. This is an unusual interpretation of the title track Since I Left You and the whole album follows in the same vein. As the review mentioned, this album contains over 900 individual samples so it's pretty incredible that it got released in the first place.