RAC :: "Let Go" [Feat. Kele and MNDR]

Two tableaus: Open to a field after a friend's wedding, various disheveled white people dance furiously to the RAC remix of Foster The People's "Houdini". It is likely to be late, and most of these people do not necessarily like Foster The People. Someone yells, "If you can't dance to this, you can't dance to anything"; the field goes wild. Scene two: The RAC play Brooklyn Bowl. In an unknown series of escalating dares, one friend slaps another in the face. What is the meaning of this? No one knows; it's the power of the RAC. And finally, what began as the Remix Artist Collective, an act that used to spin at terrible LES bars like the Skinny, looses itself on the world with a full length record. First single, "Let Go" is a comparative slow jam featuring Kele of Bloc Party and MNDR of, well, MNDR. It would easily be the best Bloc Party song in six years if Kele weren't merely a guest here. The hook spins and weaves, one of the best of the year. It isn't necessarily a burner - the RAC has surely saved some heat here - but it contains that ineffable and immutable quality of all great pop music, the kind of thing that turns a field into a dance party, the kind of thing that slaps in the face.

MNDR :: "I Go Away" [The Oos & Ahs Remix]

New York production team The Oos & Ahs have turned Brooklyn pop starlet MNDR's "I Go Away" into what they call "the dub step remix." The irony here being that the original is slightly more "dubby" (and it's moments like these where you realize how stupid genre descriptions are). So, we turn our focus to the tangible, a well-spun, soaring remix of an already catchy song. Here, they've given Amanda helium vocals (thanks, pitch adjust!) and glittering electronics as the solar system for the chorus to whir through. The final elevations of the refrain shock our sensibilities, big synths stabbing the bottom of the mix as MNDR soars up to the top of the room, flitting around like a bee trapped in a florescent light fixture. The lyrics insist she'll go away (did the title give that away too soon?) but here she is trapped in this hot mess of electronics that she built and the Oos & Ahs retrofitted into this sweeping castle. It's a pretty prison, and doesn't feel a bit like a jail.

I Go Away (The Oos & Ahhs Dubstep Remix) by nymc

MNDR :: "Cut Me Out"

It could well be the year of MNDR. If latest single, "Cut Me Out," released on Mountain Dew's fantastically corporate (a terms of use agreement, really?) indie music project Green Label Sound, is any indication, she is one step closer to being the La Roux people don't know yet. "Cut Me Out" thumps and pulses in the verses before tumbling into an eighth note riddled chorus of layered vocals and attacking synths. She scorches her own creation, stalking through the arrangment in a combination of sensuality and rage. The synthetic, UB-40 horns at the end of the chorus are the only indication this is as fun as it is serious. MNDR, Amanda Warner, you have 11-months to kill all these people. Take that as seriously as you want.

[Elevator 2011] :: Bands On The Rise

As is the custom in the indie rock universe in this coming second decade of the 21st century, it is not simply enough to know about something, you must know about it first. Furthermore, you must make outlandish predictions regarding the future success of said thing. In this case, it is music. In this case, it is 2011 and our predictions for the bands and artists who will be taking off wildly in the coming year. After the jump in no order, with regard for your future listening and the wisdom of the crowd, your Elevator 2011 bands.