A Free mp3 from a random collection of consonants

Hello, pop reader. Today I am going to introduce you to some of the most thrilling sentences in the modern musical vernacular. They are taken from the "making of" documentary for MNDR's new video, Cut Me Out.

Hold on to your chairs, here we go:

• "This project came about organically."
• "What Ivan did was to take this commercially available product and augment it for us to create a tool to capture Amanda's performance"
• "The basic story is of an individual who has layers of things put on them."

I'm going to stop there, in case the explicit nature of those quotes induces some sort of erotic episode in your trouserlegs. But for the full, uncensored effect, you should watch the full, four-and-a-half-minute rockumentary. You won't be disappointed (you will).

As it happens, MNDR is / are excellent. She is / they are Amanda Warner and / or Peter Wade, and they / she / it basically represent a New York Art School riposte to La Roux. IE They are very good indeed.

MNDR first came to our attention with a guest spot on Mark Ronson's Bang Bang Bang last year, which was swiftly followed up by the free MP3, I Go Away, a cyber-ballad with unexpected emotional heft.

Cut Me Out, on the other hand, is a very insistent song; the synth-pop equivalent of Sainsbury's self check-out machines. "Please put your items in the bagging area," it chimes passive-aggresively, unaware that you're drunk and you've just dropped all your coins over the floor and your mum's calling your mobile and an elderly woman who's come out to buy 2 litres of Vimto in her dressing gown is tutting at you under her breath. Stop it! You're giving me a panic attack.

Ahem... Here is the video.

MNDR - Cut Me Out


Like it? You can get the single for free at the Green Label Sound website.
[LINK: MNDR - Cut Me Out download page]

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Embedtime stories

Apropos of nothing - four songs that have given me goosebumps in the last 24 hours.

MNDR - Cut Me Out

A portion of peculiar pop from New York's MNDR (her off of Mark Ronson's Bang Bang Bang). It is available for download from something called Green Label Sound, which is probably very fashionable if you're the sort of person who thinks record labels are fashionable, ie a moron.


A Tribe Called Quest - Check The Rime
They didn't just do Can I Kick It, you know.


She & Him - Don't Look Back

Zooey Deschanel is delightful as ever in this retro throwback acoustipop concoction. But is it just me, or do her eyes look all raw like she's been crying? Zooey - you are always welcome at Discopop Towers if you need a comforting hug that definitely won't get weird and uncomfortable.


Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris - Love Hurts
Without wanting to sound like the sort of person who writes for Mojo magazine, this is possibly the best duet ever committed to tape. Drenched in regret, this is gut-wrenchingly, achingly beautiful. If you only know Cher's version, this is going to make you re-evaluate everything.

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Back on the block

Hello! So what's been going on round here for the last week? Anyone care to fill me in?

No need to worry about the following three videos, however. I couldn't fail to avoid them, even in the wifi wilderness of the Peak District. So here they all are, for the sake of completion.

1) Mark Ronson & The Business Intl - Bang Bang Bang


:: This was quite unexpectedly the song of the holiday.
:: It contains lyrics from French nursery rhyme Alouette.
:: "Je te plumerai la tête" means "I shall pluck your head" (?!)
:: The video will appeal to fans of the Simmons electronic drum.


2) Katy Perry - California Gurls

:: Helpfully, the video contains the same air of forced jollity as the song.
:: But I like the bit with Snoop Dogg buried up to his neck in spunk.


3) Kelis - 4th Of July (Fireworks)

:: The radio edit of this song is a triumph.
:: "Nothing I ever say or do will be as good as loving you" is a brilliant pop lyric.
:: The video is slightly awkward, although I like the nod to Jacko's Rock With You.
:: The bit with a skipping rope made of lights (3'11") is a genius display of making special effects on a limited budget, that sadly outstays its welcome by about 30 seconds.
:: The whole endeavour would have been improved tenfold by the inclusion of an eagle.

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Mark Ronson debuts - and I run for the hills

It's been doing the rounds for a couple of days now, but Mark Ronson's thoroughly acceptable new single Bang Bang Bang gets its official video premiere on Channel 4 later today.

Sadly, however, I'm off to the Peak District in exactly one hour, so I will not be bringing you any further updates on this momentous musical event until 21st June. Sorry.

In the meantime, here is a teaser clip, in which it is revealed that Ronson has stumbled upon the TOTALLY ORIGINAL idea of setting the video in a fictionalised French TV show from the 1960s.

Mark Ronson - Bang Bang Bang teaser clip


It's lucky that, isn't it, that Diana Ross (Chain Reaction), Phil Collins (You Can't Hurry Love) and Marina And The Diamonds (that godawful Stella advert) have never produced similar videos?

Still, the Battle Of The Planets bit at the end hints that things might take an unexpected turn for the better.

Bang Bang Bang, which features Q-Tip on vocals, is a return to the hip-hop sound of Ronson's debut album Here Comes The Fuzz. I can only give you a 30 second clip, but it sounds something like this.



The vocalist on the track is not, as you might have suspected, Santigold but MNDR. Known by her dad as Amanda Warner, She's definitely one to watch in 2011 (can't believe I'm typing that already).

Her new EP - called EPE - features a stunning Prince-meets-Kim-Deal bedroom break-up ballad called I'll Go Away. Scattered with tribal drums, haunting synths and fractured vocals, it's absolutely beautiful.


MNDR - I Go Away [right-click to download]

See you all in a week or so!

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