Hear a snippet of new music from The Avalanches

The second album from Australian sample wranglers The Avalanches is now so overdue that it's become something of a joke.

It's well over a decade since the electronic collective released their influential and much-loved debut album Since I Left You. Although production of a follow-up LP is reported to be well underway, aside from a brief flurry of activity last summer, we've seen little evidence to suggest we can expect it to appear any time soon.

Today a snippet of new music has emerged from the group however, as part of a teaser video for the soundtrack to a new Australian musical theatre version of King Kong.

The Avalanches' contribution to the soundtrack, it seems, is a surprisingly brash hip-hop take on Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler's Get Happy, which bears little resemblance to the band's classic sample collages.

The King Kong soundtrack, which is being overseen by Marius de Vries, also features contributions from Justice, Sarah McLachlan and Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja. Stream samples of all in the video above.

Si Truss

I'm Editor-in-Chief of Music Technology, working with Future Music, Computer Music, Electronic Musician and MusicRadar. I've been messing around with music tech in various forms for over two decades. I've also spent the last 10 years forgetting how to play guitar. Find me in the chillout room at raves complaining that it's past my bedtime.