When we last caught up with Mines Falls, nearly two years ago in the uneven pandemic summer, the Los Angeles duo were cruising through a tumbling mood that placed New Hampshire brothers Carson and Erik Lund (Old Abram Brown) somewhere in the air between the moon above and the road below. As we continue to emerge toward something increasingly undefined, both as a mood and a stark realization of reality, the project has returned with “Right Angle”, a propulsive composition featuring O. Mer that hovers and aches through a futurism firmly rooted in the now.
“The modern consumerist landscape, accelerated by the pandemic, encourages us to live passive, sedentary lifestyles in which we are captive to our various screens and made to feel powerless against the narrow conditions of our lives,” Mines Falls declare. “’Right Angle’ was born out of a growing frustration with those conditions, and a restless desire to break through the facade in some way. We wanted to make a song that fizzles with pent-up energy and a sense of rebellion from both the forces that govern our lives and even the musical style that we’ve come to be associated with.”
The lead track off the upcoming Piano Caldera LP, Mines Falls admit they’re taking a cue from Talking Heads and LCD Soundsystem here on “Right Angle,” applying a drum n’ bass tension over a tumbling electronic-pop composition that possesses “an aura of coming apocalypse.” It’s accompanying visual shifts these themes into overdrive through the here-and-tomorrow worlds of Drive and Blade Runner, a journey through nocturnal Los Angeles that, for better for worse, usually yields whatever it is we’re looking for.
“In our cinematic representation of the song, we find ourselves speeding through an urban dystopia in a retro sports car, absorbed in an obsessive quest to extract a trio of magical gems to soup-up our ride,” they add. “A tongue-in-cheek riff on technological fetishism and the modern consumer condition that pulls from the neo-noir stylings of ’80s-era Mann, Carpenter, and Carax.
Take a ride with Mines Falls below.