See the Avalanches’ Vibrant, Animated ‘Subways’ Video
The Avalanches teamed up with French illustrators Mrzyk & Moriceau for the joyous video for their single, “Subways.” The vibrant animations complement the song’s lively use of sampling from a variety of sources.
One of the samples featured in the song is “Warm Ride,” originally written by the Bee Gees. “Subways” offers a hazy take on the disco era. This clearly inspired Mrzyk & Moriceau’s clip: near the beginning, a character saunters down the street with a boombox, a la John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. The colors here are bright and cheerful — the train whooshes into the station in a multicolored blur.
In an interview with the Australian radio station Triple J, the Avalanches‘ Robbie Chater spoke about the song’s ample use of sampling. “It’s based around a sample from a 12-year-old singer called Chandra … We came across her EP, called The Transportation EP, made in 1980 and it’s this crazy No Wave post-punk random music … It must be very strange for her today to hear her 12-year-old self sampled in another dimension exploded around in space and time, coming back out through the radio again.”
The Avalanches returned in July with Wildflower, their first album since debuting in 2000 with Since I Left You. The group released a different video for “Subways” in June.