The Avalanches have returned with “Far Away,” a new collaboration that connects the group’s sample-minded electronic identity with a deliberately nostalgic visual format.
The September 9 release features British rapper and producer John Glacier and Tunisian producer Khadija Al Hanafi. Rolling Stone Australia reported that the track arrives ahead of a Sydney pop-up show at Club 77.
The accompanying video was shot in Japan using a 2001 Sony Handycam and the now-obsolete MiniDV PAL format. That production choice fits neatly with a group whose music has long turned fragments of older media into something newly assembled.
Old technology, new context
The use of MiniDV is more than a retro filter. As artists work in an era of ultra-clean phone cameras and generative imagery, deliberately choosing an older recording format creates texture, limitation and a specific sense of memory that software emulation does not always reproduce.
“Far Away” also demonstrates how international electronic music continues to blur geographic boundaries. An Australian group, a British collaborator, a Tunisian producer and footage recorded in Japan become parts of the same release.
Amplifier Take: The Avalanches have always understood that technology becomes interesting when it carries history. “Far Away” extends that idea beyond sampling and into the visual language surrounding the record.