The Canadian rock duo Angine de Poitrine conquered the internet this year with long-nosed, polka-dotted masks and music that’s intricate, virtuosic, microtonal, mostly instrumental and unquestionably fun.
On Friday the duo released its second album, “Vol. II.” Three of its new songs were included in a live set recorded in France for the Seattle public radio station KEXP, which has drawn more than six million YouTube views and spurred a jovial, can-you-top-this comments section, with entries like “I came back from the year 3056 to witness the birth of our music” (from mikebeecosmicman).
Angine de Poitrine is from the city of Saguenay in Quebec; its name is French for angina pectoris, the chest pain that can precede a heart attack. The band’s members use pseudonyms: Klek de Poitrine on drums and Khn de Poitrine, who plays a double-necked guitar and bass with closely spaced frets that divide each octave into 24 notes instead of the usual 12.
Playing barefoot, with polka dots painted on his feet, Khn runs that guitar through a looping setup, pressing pedals to stack guitar parts on top of bass lines — riffs, melodies, dissonant chords, frenetic solos — while Klek’s drumming underlines every essential beat and syncopation.
Although they’ve maintained their anonymity, Khn and Klek have revealed in interviews that they have been making music together for two decades, since their early teens. They first performed masked in 2019 when they were booked twice in a week at the same venue and didn’t think anyone would come to hear the same band so soon. But what started as a joke became an identity full of playful concealment. The rare vocals in their songs are distorted and unintelligible. Between songs, they raise thumb-and-forefinger triangles in what looks like a ritual.
While the costumes and anonymity have clearly helped draw attention, Angine de Poitrine’s music is no gimmick; it’s a feat of live unity and dexterity, hand played with zero margin for error. The duo has plenty of forebears and reference points, among them Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Primus, King Crimson, Tinariwen, Battles and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. Its compositions flaunt the tricky odd meters of math-rock and zigzag melodies that hint at Middle Eastern, Asian, Balkan and North African music, along with psychedelia, funk and progressive rock. It’s music of precision, agility and stamina, adding up to a contagious manic energy.
“Vol. II,” like “Vol. 1” from 2024, contains six tightly wound tracks. It includes “Sarniezz,” which starts as a bluesy shuffle, then breaks into double time with a pileup of gnarled microtonal runs, and “Utzp,” which could be a bent klezmer tune. “Mata Zyklek” revs up to breakneck, five-beat buzz-bombing, and “Yor Zarad” seesaws between jabbing riffs and hurtling melodies. “Fabienz” has a stop-start tune that turns funky, and “Angor” works variations on insistently repeated notes.
The band fully understands the power of rhythm, repetition, dissonance, surprise and noise, while it delivers them in a whimsical package. Angine de Poitrine knows that a joke can hold a deeper truth.
Jon Pareles, a culture correspondent for The Times, served as chief pop music critic for 37 years. He studied music, played in rock, jazz and classical groups and was a college-radio disc jockey. He was previously an editor at Rolling Stone and The Village Voice.
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