Rocket Recordings are pleased to announce the signing of MIEN whose self-titled debut album will be released on Friday, April 6th, 2018. Comprised of The Black Angel’s Alex Maas, The Horror’s Tom Furse, Elephant Stone’s Rishi Dhir and The Earlies’ John-Mark Lapham, MIEN announces their debut album today.

 
The seeds were sown for this collaboration as long ago as 2004 when Rishi Dhir found himself in a chance encounter with Black Angels’ frontman Alex Maas whilst performing sitar with his former band on a bill at SXSW in Austin with The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Not long afterward, he would also stumble across the Anglo-American band The Earlies, who he would similarly collaborate and share a stage with. This led to essentially the genesis of MIEN, via a shared love for one song – the ‘classic sitar banger’ by the Association, ‘Wantin’ Ain’t Gettin’. Upon finding that both he and The Earlies’ electronics guru and producer John Mark Lapham had a particular desire to cover this ditty, they began a slow process of putting together the version they’d always dreamed of. Whilst this would never come to fruition – the sparks that flew between them lit up a collaborative path clearly worth following.
Some years later, another piece of the puzzle came into place, when Dhir was now playing bass with The Black Angels in 2012, and found the band sharing several bills with The Horrors, whose ‘Skying’ album had been on heavy rotation for him during this period. Thus he made the acquaintance of Tom Furse, and yet another pact was made to work together in the future. Soon, via yet another pass at the ill-starred Association cover, the four planets of the MIEN universe were to align, as a long-standing demo of John Mark – originally based on a Beastie Boys sample – was passed from the cutting-room- floor through the hands of Rishi, Alex and Tom to undergo an alchemical process that startled all four – this was to become ‘Black Habit’, the second song on this debut.

Album Track List:

1. Earth Moon
2. Black Habit
3. (I’m Tired of) Western Shouting
4. You Dreamt
5. Other
6. Hocus Pocus
7. Ropes
8. Echolalia
9. Odessey
10. Earth Moon (Reprise)