Back in my February highlights piece I wrote a bit about a KEXP show of a Quebec based, anonymous, experimental duo who’s live performance went viral and they were suddenly all over every single music nerd page out there.

Since the release of the KEXP recording, Angine de Poitrine have exploded. I don’t think I have ever seen the consequences of viral success be so visible. For example, the duo announced a show at Scala in London approx three weeks after the KEXP video. Scala has a capacity of about 1,100. This show has since been upgraded to Electric Ballroom which can hold 1,500 people. Not the craziest jump but still, they managed to sell out both venues so the demand is there. Jump to end of March and they announce an additional London show for October at the Troxy which holds 3,600 people. They’ve doubled their audience demand in the space of a month. That’s insane. Combine this with the fact that they are suddenly doing multiple shows across the world where before they mainly played in Canada and the US and you can see how popular they have suddenly become. Every talent booker in the Quebec vicinity must have been falling over themselves to sign these guys.

So who are Angine de Poitrine exactly and what is behind their success? Well, we don’t know who they are really. Going by the stage names Khn (guitar) and Klek (drums), the duo wear oversized masks with big noses and outfits emblazoned with polka dots. It’s a striking, unearthly visual which immediately makes them recognisable. Google even has it’s own polka dot animation if you search the band.

But what do they sound like I hear you ask? Weird, crazy, unhinged but endlessly fucking inventive. The internet has categorised them as experimental, math rock framed around jarring time signatures and exploration of microtones. Khn performs on a custom double necked guitar/bass which has been outfitted to allow for microtonal playing and utilises a loop station to layer complex rhythms over one another. Klek sets the speed with rattling hi-hats and snares coming at you from all angles. It’s every music nerd’s wet dream. Music to make people look at you weird when you play them at a party with a shit-eating smug grin on your dumb face.

Vol.II is the follow up to the duo’s debut which was released in 2024. Obviously this release has had much more attention and anticipation but the music across the two is similar. Tracks are speedy, unpredictable, almost deliberately confrontational. Fabienk kicks things off with a disjointed riff which underlies much of the track. The bass and the guitar wiggle around each other, carving out their space and elevating the track’s dynamics while the drums keep things groovy and punchy despite the unnatural timings. Mata Zyklek and Utzp are probably my two favourites from the album. While they both adhere to a similar formula, I think each track shows the duo’s talent and chemistry at their very best. Blistering guitars and complex solos from Khn backed up by tight and rapid drums giving an almost fucked up marching band feel to some passages. The interplay and talent between the two is exceptional and is the absolute star of the show throughout the album’s runtime.

My only criticism of Vol.II and I guess of the duo in general, would be that a lot of the music follows essentially the same format so for the casual music fan, it doesn’t necessarily lend itself to repeat listens. You can absolutely make the argument that they have only become popular because people like to nerd out about them and they are maybe relying on a gimmick? But if you want something fun, different and immensely creative, you cannot go wrong with this album.

I realise this review is maybe more of an assessment of Angine de Poitrine’s current standing in the musical landscape rather than of the album itself. But I feel like you can’t get away from discussing the album without discussing them. I know the basics of music theory and understand the fundamentals of what I’m listening to here. People much smarter than I have made countless videos breaking down what makes this music so attractive and why our goblin brains eat it up. At a time where music, art and creativity is being dumbed down and steadily penetrated by AI, Angine de Poitrine serve as an assurance that ‘real’ artistic expression can and will exist. Maybe that’s why they’ve become so popular? At the end of the day, when the robots take over and Elon Musk takes us all out back one by one and puts a bullet in our brains, at least we’ll die with the knowledge that someone, somewhere is dressing up in polka dots and big masks and making weird, fun, crazy-ass music.