Sampling masters The Avalanches revealed the official music video for “We Go On” featuring up-and-coming nu-disco artist Cola Boyy and Mick Jones of The Clash/Big Audio Dynamite. The song was initially released on The Avalanches December LP We Will Always Love You, which won the 2020 Australian Music Prize.
The video was directed by Jonathan Zawada and Michael Dole, who computer-animated a long street of neon signs advertising psychics, fortune tellers, clairvoyants and astrologists. Lyrics for the track are included as similar neon signs on the storefronts. Eventually the street ends, but the neon signs remain, floating in space until a new street picks up where the first one left off.
“We Go On” balances Cola Boyy and Mick Jones’ catchy vocal melody with an infectious bass groove, spacey synths and four-on-the-floor drums. It begins with a memorable sample of The Carpenters’ “Hurting Each Other,” but Cola Boyy and Mick Jones’ lyrics become a hook of their own, “Dancehall’s rockin’ for the people ’cause we say so/Why am I fighting to stay on this payroll?”
The Avalanches’ Robbie Chater explained that they chose Cola Boyy, aka Matthew Urango, because he “is one of the most talented producers and writers around, as well as riotous good fun…having him on the same record as Mick Jones made so much sense to us.” Jones is best known for being a member of The Clash, but Chater says he’s a good fit because of his history with Big Audio Dynamite, who is credited to be the first artist that Chater encountered sampling through as a young boy. He reminisces, “One or two of their songs were big pop records on Australian radio – and it was that feeling, as a kid, of ‘how did they do that? What is that? It was sampling.’”
We Will Always Love You is packed with features from a diverse range of artists, which also includes Orono Noguchi of Superorganism, Blood Orange, MGMT, Johnny Marr, Leon Bridges, Terence Trent D’Arby, Vashti Bunyan, Perry Farrell, Tricky, Denzel Curry, Sampa the Great, Kurt Vile, Pink Siifu, Karen O, Rivers Cuomo, Kelly Moran and Cornelius.
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