Name: Mien
Brand: Mien

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

CD-LAUNCH-125

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2018-04-27

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Redeye

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

5055300394484

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Mien

Genre US

Rock-Pop

Label US

Rocket Recordings

The Shacks - Haze

<a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/the-shacks-haze">Rough Trade Exclusive. 1500 Copies only on Coke Clear Vinyl with Download and Bonus CD.</a>

One of the best debut albums you'll hear this year, The Shacks are already well on their way to becoming one of 2018's big breakouts.

Fronted by 19-year-old singer &amp; bassist Shannon Wise and 21-year-old guitarist Max Shrager, and produced together by Shrager and Big Crown co-founder Leon Michels, The Shacks' debut was recorded in bits and pieces between Shrager's basement and Michels' Diamond Mine studio, which the Observer has dubbed "the Shangri La of Soul". The result is lavish ‘60s pop soul orchestra action with rich production including swirling, whirling organ, brass punctuation and romantically yearning plucked guitars. The album's opener in particular shimmers and sparkles as it shifts in and out of focus, and is an ideal gateway into the immersive world of The Shacks.

1. The Shacks - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/the-shacks-haze">Haze</a>

2. Sunflower Bean - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/sunflower-bean-twentytwo-in-blue">Twentytwo in Blue</a>

3. Hinds - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/hinds-i-don-t-run">I Don't Run</a>

4. Mastersystem - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/mastersystem-dance-music">Dance Music</a>

5. Mien - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/mien-mien">Mien</a>

6. Ady Suleiman - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/ady-suleiman-memories">Memories</a>

7. Goat Girl - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/goat-girl-goat-girl">Goat Girl</a>

8. Frankie Cosmos - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/frankie-cosmos-vessel">Vessel</a>

9. Courtney Marie Andrews - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/courtney-marie-andrews-may-your-kindness-remain-553e3af4-ff82-477d-8807-59595d16b950">May Your Kindness Remain</a>

10. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - <a href="https://roughtrade.com/us/music/unknown-mortal-orchestra-sex-and-food">Sex and Food</a>

Albums of the Month - April 2018

Albums of the Year 2018

“I have always adored the buzzing sound of electricity amplified in highly-distorted sound spectrums” reckons John O’Carroll. “It just seems so fitting to hear instruments like that; when I hear some nice fuzz or distortion, it's an aural manifestation of electricity itself - and being a visual person, I can't help but see it visually.”

The blurred lines between sensory experience that co-founder John O'Carroll touches on sits at the very heart of Rocket Recordings. Visualising fuzz and distortion is one thing but there are endless elements of layering, volume and smooth, sharp and abrasive edges in equal parts adding a tactile facet to the recordings.

This goes hand in hand with the beautiful album artwork across the board which makes flicking through their collection more akin to walking through an art gallery than skimming through a box of records. Co-founder Chris Reeder's background in graphic design is partly to blame for this as are the weird and wonderful artists signed to the label.

“Rightly or wrongly, we’re generally thought of as a psych label” Chris Reeder said in an interview with <a href="https://www.loudandquiet.com/short/20-year-story-rocket-recordings-told-via-10-essential-releases/">Loud and Quiet</a>. Though the bands rarely subscribe to Psychedelia in its sonic tradition, all the bands have an appetite for the strange - pushing the envelope every which way. Mystery shrouds Swedish band <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/goat">GOAT</a> and their folkloric frontman <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/goatman">Goatman</a> - masked World Music experimentalists with satanic genesis myths and ritualistic sounds.

<a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/gnod">GNOD</a> are another band on Rocket that have cultivated a cult like environment for their fans, with religious and political imagery a key theme of their output and immersive performances and installations.

O’Carroll set up Rocket Recordings with Chris Reeder in 1998, which they have seen grow from a small hobby - largely concerned with releasing 7” singles from their Avon-based contemporaries. From this launchpad, the label morphed through an early 21st century period in which it worked alongside other neurologically stimulating phenomena such as <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/oneida">Oneida</a> - all the while with a strong emphasis being placed on a particularly synapse-shifting approach to graphic design and packaging.

As the first decade of this new era turned into the second, and transformative outfits like GNOD, White Hills, Teeth Of The Sea, and GOAT joined the fray, the label’s identity evolved into a byword for intrepid sonic exploration irrespective of any notions of boundaries or genre. This has now expanded to take in visionary and innovative artists from Sweden (Josefin Ohrn + the Liberation, Hills, Flowers Must Die) Russia (Gnoomes) Italy (Lay Llamas, Manuthones, Julies Haircut) and Newcastle (Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs) alike, not to mention the transatlantic <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/mien">MIEN</a>, that features members of <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/the-horrors">The Horrors</a> and <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/the-black-angels">Black Angels</a> - dauntless mavericks all. Meanwhile, Rocket have found themselves taking a curatorial role at festivals such as Supernormal, Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia and Eindhoven Psych Lab to mention just a few.

2018 has seen Rocket Recordings turn twenty and now as ever, the forward motion of this craft remains steadfast and oblivious to all around it, the label’s vision and insights intact with sights set skyward on fresh lunacy and elegant chaos anew.

Five Minutes with Chris Reeder and John O'Carroll

Which 5 records from the past 20 years would best define your record label?

John O'Carroll: That's not a question thats easy to answer really, different albums have taken us in different directions, intentionally or not, so I don't like the idea of defining what we are about in a few sentences.

Chris Reeder: Mmmmm, tricky as for me every release is quite different and we are a label who try not to repeat ourselves with our bands. I know a lot of people just think of us as a psych label, but if you took a track off all our albums and compiled them together you will hear great diversity. But if I have to pick 5 records (really, I need way more than 5!)?

GNOD – Just Say No to the Psycho Right-Wing Capitalist Fascist Industrial Death Machine

Gnoomes - <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/music/tschak">Tschak!</a>

Goatman – <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/music/goatman-rhythms">Rhythms</a>

Shit and Shine - <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/music/54-synth-brass-38-metal-guitar-65-cathedral">54 Synth-brass, 38 Metal guitar, 65 Cathedral</a>

Anthroprophh – <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/music/anthroprophh-omegaville">OMEGAVILLE</a>

Rocket have some beautiful album artwork - how much of that is down to the band and how much is down to Rocket?

CR: As both myself and John are designers the artwork has always been an important part of the release. I personally have always been obsessed with record sleeve art so to be able to design sleeves as my job I feel very lucky. We are also very lucky that most our bands want us to do the design. Some come with ideas, some want to work with a particular illustrator or artist. If I was going to have to pick one sleeve I think it would have to be GOAT - <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/music/goat-world-music-picture-disc">World Music</a>.

JO: Both Chris and I have different styles and takes on the artwork which can sometimes collide into one sleeve for an artist. However for the majority of releases we tend to individually work with a band as close as possible to grasp some conceptual ideas, then try to interpret the music visually to see what can reveal itself...to me it's just very informed secret codes that I have to find a way to understand.

What is happening at Rocket right now that's getting you excited?

CR: Well we have lots of great things in the pipeline, new <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/pigs-pigs-pigs-pigs-pigs-pigs-pigs">Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs</a> album is on its way. The aforementioned <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/goatman">Goatman</a> LP which is the solo project by on of the guys from <a href="https://www.roughtrade.com/us/artist/goat">GOAT</a>. Teeth of the Sea, Josefin Ohrn, Shine &amp; Shine and Gnoomes are working on new records for us. Plus new signing <a href="https://gumtakestooth.bandcamp.com/">Gum Takes Tooth</a> have an amazing new record on it's way...

JO: We are looking forward to our twenty-first year, our coming of age ritual, lots of heady genres being smashed together, old and new friends, shared headspaces, simple headphone minds.

Being specialists in the strange, would you say Britain weirder than when you first started Rocket?

JO: Good question, hard to say as in the beginning Rocket was more locally based in Bristol, compared to now with the internet - a worldwide community, so we didn't have a bigger picture like we maybe have now. I'd like to say it is in some ways but has always been there. I like the fact that it can accept itself as being weird, we have a rich tradition of it, it should be celebrated as if its Supernormal.

CR: Haha, Britain has always been weird, it is what makes it such a unique country. Obviously these times are weird in new way, and not all good!

John: Goatman is in all of us, you've just got to find your own Goatman, I am often Goatman on a Friday night, then I let others be Goatman if they so choose - but those who choose, follow only the one Goatman, who then follows you.

<a href="http://rocketrecordings.blogspot.com/">Website</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1Vlra7XzStBBVkcBXkAo4g">YouTube</a>

<a href="https://twitter.com/RocketRecording">Twitter</a>

Label Focus - Rocket

Mien release their self-titled debut. Available on Rough Trade Exclusive 140 Gram Red / Black Marbled Vinyl, 140 Gram Black Vinyl and CD.

Debut album by Mien, the exciting new four piece band comprised of The Black Angels’ Alex Maas, The Horrors’ Tom Furse, Elephant Stone’s Rishi Dhir and The Earlies’ John-Mark Lapham. The seeds were sown for this collaboration as long ago as 2004, when Rishi Dhir (Elephant Stone) 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 afterwards, he would also stumble across electronics guru and producer John Mark Lapham from Anglo-American band The Earlies, via a shared love for one song - the ‘classic sitar banger’ by The Association, Wantin’ Ain’t Gettin’. 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. Thus he made the acquaintance of Tom Furse, and yet another pact was made to work together. Several traversals of the globe by both plane and audio-file later, the result is an album that sees this quartet transcending their origins whilst maintaining a cohesive unity borne of a desire for outward exploration. John Mark’s vision, as he puts it, was “imagine the Black Angels as Nico in her 80’s industrial phase mixed with George Harrison and Conny Plank.” - true to form, it’s an album that finds equal room for radiant groove-based propulsion and ambient dreamscapes alike - as comfortable with the murky hallucinogenic voyage of You Dreamt as the powerful widescreen sweep of (I’m Tired Of) Western Shouting, yet with songwriting acumen as potent as the production values are expansive and exploratory. This may have been a record put together at a distance - yet the chemistry between these four figures is manifest amidst a kaleidoscopic series of atmospheres and excursions whereby the fertile songwriting of the golden age of ‘60s psychedelia is transmitted into a transcendental realm above and beyond the second decade of the 21st century.

CD - Mini Gatefold Replica CD with Inner Booklet.

LP - 140 Gram Black Vinyl with Download.

LP++ - Rough Trade Exclusive. Limited to 300 Copies on 140 Gram Red / Black Marbled Vinyl with Download.