The end of the year is a great time to look back at all the best new music we have discovered in the preceding months. But December’s homestretch is a particularly exciting time. The whirlwind of solstice celebrations presents us with many additional opportunities to discover overlooked albums.

One of my favorite finds during the past few weeks has been Richie Kotzen’s fantastic Nomad album, which I somehow missed earlier in 2024 (despite being a big fan). I’ve been playing it repeatedly as the year closes out. It’s rocketed onto my top ten list, but more on that later.

For the moment, I wanted to mention a cool album from a couple of years ago that I’ve just now gotten into. Clear your headspace and get ready to discover strange new worlds with this little gem from Mi’ens (pronounced “mittens,” but of course with the requisite accent):

Mi’ens is a mathy noise rock duo from Vancouver, Canada, founded in 2012. Experimental, with a side of sparklepop. Mi’ens is the female-fronted shredding of Kim Glennie on guitar/loops/Moog, backed by the polyrhythmic blastbeats of Evan Heggen on drums. Their unique brand of math noise consists of live loops, layered textural guitar and effects, the warm, analog drone of the Moog, coupled with well-placed vocalizations, all atop breakneck beats. Mi’ens veers into the territory of art rock/post rock on their latest, Future Child, a follow up to 2017’s Challenger, their 2014 LP experimentalsparklenoisepop and the 2013 demo EP Mi’ens. Mi’ens has toured the US, UK and Canada, and has opened for Tera Melos, Elephant Gym, LITE and Drug Apts.