MIEN

Though this is MIEN’s debut album, the band has been nearly 14 years in the making, starting when Elephant Stone’s Rishi Dhir met Black Angels frontman Alex Maas during a shared SXSW bill. John-Mark Lapham (The Earlies) was next, and the three came together over an affinity for an old sitar tune by The Association. The now four-piece (rounded out by The Horrors’ Tom Furse) decided to take a crack at one of Lapham’s old demos (based on a Beastie Boys sample). The result became “Black Habit,” the second track on this album, a piece of industrial rock that expands with unfurling synth interludes and with a muted production that keeps the song sultry and driving. The Black Angels influence shows up on songs like “(I’m Tired of) Western Shouting,” with its cavernous percussion and psychedelic echo. The slow-burning “Hocus Pocus” steps with thick bass through an atmosphere of synth texture and heavy reverb. It’s dreamy, like a mirage, as though the tones are exuding heat.