This week has seen the release of MIIEN, the sec­ond album from MIEN – a col­lab­o­ra­tive project that brings togeth­er a group of musi­cians who might be termed a psych super­group. Rishi Dhir, vocal­ist and song­writer with Mon­tre­al psych band Ele­phant Stone, ven­tures into dark­er ter­ri­to­ry along­side Alex Maas of The Black Angels, whose dis­tinc­tive, vul­ner­a­ble vocals add a haunt­ing pres­ence. The oth­er two mem­bers of the band are John-Mark Lapham of US/UK hybrid band The Ear­lies, and drum­mer Robb Kidd of Gold­en Dawn Arkestra.

New album MIIEN is a loose blend of garage-psych, inter­spers­ing an upbeat, propul­sive dancey vibe with dark­er and more ambi­ent under­tones. The open­er, Evil Peo­ple, belongs to the for­mer, with a propul­sive, chunky bass and Alex Maas’ woozy vocals inton­ing, “You and I we belong togeth­er, you and I we go back and forth’. 

That ener­gy con­tin­ues with Coun­ter­bal­ance which opens with a twirly gui­tar riff that evokes The Vel­vet Underground’s What Goes On. The track rapid­ly expands into a rich blend of dis­tort­ed gui­tars, thick bass and vocals repeat­ed like a mantra. It all leads to the final third where it real­ly lets loose, coa­lesc­ing in a heady mash of synths and vocals, and that ear­li­er riff that rears its head again. Gor­geous stuff, and one of the high points of the album – these two tracks live are going to light up the room.

Sev­er­al tracks slow the tem­po like Silent Golden, which starts off with an Ele­phant Stone vibe. Maas’s whis­pered vocals and a taut synth line cre­ate a del­i­cate ten­sion that threat­ens to tip into men­ace but pulls back. This pat­tern is on repeat, cul­ti­vat­ing a sense of qui­et unease that lingers beneath the sur­face. Fol­low­ing track Mir­ror soothes those nerves with its boun­cy beat, rip­pling gui­tars and com­fort­ing bleeps, anchored by Maas’s vocals. 

Tung­sten takes us down a more elec­tron­ic path, this track shim­mers with the dream pop ambi­ence of Beach House. And towards the album’s clo­sure, Knock­ing on Your Door opens with a dis­ori­ent­ing, drawn-out pas­sage that evokes the sprawl­ing, lay­ered tex­tures of The Besnard Lakes, reach­ing out to us some­where through the fog. 

MIIEN is a mov­ing and rather mag­is­te­r­i­al work. Its mem­bers work togeth­er seam­less­ly and with respect, each of them enhanc­ing the heart of each track. With its shifts from Krautrock to dream pop to punk, and always with the psych vibe at its core, MIIEN is an album that accom­plish­es what it sets out to do.

MIEN. New album MIIEN, on Fuz­zclub
Insta­gram link