mi’ens – Challenger (2016)

It’s International Women’s Day for a couple hours more, so what better a time to (re-)introduce you to the female fronted Vancouver duo mi’ens. These noisy two souls are cutting fresh slices of math rock with Challenger, their most recent effort since the 2014 LP, experimentalsparklenoisepop.

Being predominately loop based, guitarist frontwoman Kim drives the groove with looped guitar melodies stacked atop each other, slowly build a soundscape of mathy and hypnotic rhapsody, with Kim’s guitar lines interlayered between Evan’s tactical polyrhythmic-rich drumming. You would not be blamed for hearing echoes of Pneu or Cheval De Frise in tracks like ‘Ja Baar’ or ‘Prussian Ellipses’.

There’s fun to be had in Challenger. Like their previous releases, it’s as laid back and groovy as it is vivacious, distorted and unhinged. Like a shuttle exploding in the sky? Too soon?

File Under

Progressive, two-piece, math rock, looping, angularity, vocals

Sounds A Tad Like

Cheval De Frise, Pneu, Time Columns

Price

Name Your Price (Bandcamp)

Location

Canada