Hongkongers love post-rock. And, it seems, judging from the steady stream of the world’s biggest bands in the genre, post-rockers might just love Hong Kong as well. Continuing the trend of recent years, we’ve seen a number of epically loud, instrumental rock groups hit town in 2011, from Mono to World’s End Girlfriend to the recent ear-drum-shattering antics of Mogwai. But to round out the year, post-rock fans are in for a more soothing treat with Japan’s Miaou.

Miaou – merely a French spelling of ‘meow’ – is Tasuki Hamasaki and sisters Hiromi & Mayumi Hasegawa. Bonding over a university project and their common penchant for bands like Telefon Tel Aviv, Do Make Say Think and Boards of Canada, they formed the band in 2001 and adopted a similar aesthetic to this trio of bands which oozes through their music a decade on.

Miaou love electronics. They play around with synths, use toy instruments, merge samples with their guitars and champion Hamasaki’s fragile-sounding vocals. With such an aesthetic, it would be natural to compare them to their Japanese cousins, Toe, and indeed, Toe guitarist Mino Takaaki recorded and mixed their first two albums.

Recently, they’ve hooked up with Architecture in Helsinki’s Cornel Wilczek to produce their latest album The Day Will Come Before Long, which has given them the kind of refreshing sound that’s quite Nordic – like a mix between Amiina and Emilie Simon’s work for March of the Penguins. And, supported by Malaysian post-rockers Silent Scenery, this gig should be as refreshing as your menthol gum. Cathy Chan 

Miaou play Hang Out on Saturday December 17. Tickets: www.whitenoiserecords.org.