Review Summary: Weird as hell, insanely groovy, and almost impossible not to move to.
Angine de Poitrine is a Québécois duo playing this bizarre mashup of math rock, prog, and psych, all channelled through microtonal weirdness. Their second record, Vol. II, has been picking up a ton of traction lately, especially off the back of their recent KEXP performance, and it’s not hard to see why. I was originally going to approach Vol. II from a more technical angle, zooming in on microtonality and their propensity for weird time signatures. I even had a whole conversation with a friend about it and about how our ears are so attuned to twelve tone equal temperament that anything deviating from it has this really noticeable, almost alien quality to it at first. It seemed like a logical approach to something like this initially: break down what they’re doing, try to explain why it sounds the way it does, and delve into the more techy side of things.
But after a few listens, it seemed like the wrong thing to zero-in on.
Because when I was
actively listening to it, the first thing that really hit me with this album wasn’t "wow, this is so complex.” It was, "this is surprisingly immediate." More than anything I’ve heard in recent memory, I find it almost impossible not to nod along and tap my foot to this album. It makes me restless in the best possible way. Even when I’m feeling fatigued, it makes me want to move. It’s like an energy drink without the empty calories and inevitable caffeine crash.
And that’s kind of the whole trick of Angine de Poitrine: they strike a perfect balance of infectious energy and novelty. Everything about it, on paper, should be a little off. The microtonal guitar, the weird time signatures, the way the rhythms feel like they’re constantly shifting. It should feel alien. And, to be fair, it does (at first). There’s definitely that initial “what the f
uck is this” moment where the guitar barely even sounds like a guitar anymore (especially prevalent in opener
Fabienk). But then you adjust. Pretty quickly, honestly. And once you do, man, this album grooves. Hard.
A big part of why it works is that everything is anchored in a groove that’s just immediately easy to latch onto. Even when things get strange, even when it feels like it’s about to drift off into something else, there’s always
something there pulling you back in. It never loses that sense of momentum. That’s what keeps it from feeling pretentious or overly artsy. It’s weird, yeah, but it’s also just undeniably fun, energetic rock music at its core.
Their whole presentation feeds into the aesthetic, especially in a live setting. The theatrical, silly-as-hell costumes and set designs match the music way more than you’d expect. It’s odd, eccentric, maaaaybe a little off-putting at a glance, very indie-coded in a way that would be easy to write off. But give it a bit of time (I promise it doesn’t take long) and it’s kind of amazing how palatable it all becomes. Their KEXP performance is probably why so many people are even paying attention right now. Beyond the microtonal stuff and the mathy playing, they’re just straight up really entertaining to watch. From the quirky, almost comical way they say their band name to the energy they bring to their performances, it all feels playful instead of self-serious.
Despite that playfulness and the jam-out nature of the music, everything feels purposeful. Even on tracks where the setup feels a bit drawn out, it always ends up going somewhere. You’ll think it’s settling into a groove, maybe looping a bit too much, and then it shifts again. A weird guitar tone cuts through, or the rhythm flips on you, or it just ramps up in a way that catches you off guard and changes your perspective from “this is cool” to “this s
hit is crazy.”
If this all sounds a little too heady, perhaps I’m laying it on a bit thick. This by no means is some obtusely challenging avant-garde album. At its core, what they’re doing here is actually pretty minimal in terms of moving parts. I should probably mention that this is almost entirely instrumental: a lot of guitar, bass, and drums, all looped and layered. Vocals do show up a couple times, but they’re not the focus. They feel more like another instrument in the mix. Which makes sense, because the real focus is the interplay between the instruments and the way these grooves develop over time.
I honestly don’t even know how to go about explaining these tracks individually. This feels like one of those albums that’s more than the sum of its parts, and maybe that’s more on me than the album, since this kind of instrumental rock has always been a bit of a blind spot for me. The whole thing just flows so effortlessly from front to back that it’s hard to isolate specific moments without losing sight of the bigger picture. That said,
Utzp is an easy highlight for me. The first half has this almost polka-like feel to it, which sounds weird on paper, but trust me, it works. Then the latter half locks into this insanely deep groove. It’s awesome and probably the most kinetic moment on the whole album, challenged only by the following track
Yor Zarad. That one leans even harder into the rhythmic side of things, built around this galloping bassline that just absolutely slaps. The way the guitar plays off it is ridiculous, constantly weaving in and out of the groove without ever losing it. Both tracks feel like hypnotic, rhythmic masterclasses, the kind of stuff that you feel through your entire body.
And that’s kind of the thing I keep coming back to with this album. Underneath all the guitar wizardry, it’s simply a blast to listen and nod along to. A cursory skim had me going into it expecting something I’d have to unpack and analyze, but it never really asks that of the listener. The pieces just clicked into place, far faster than I expected them to. The weirdness is there, the microtonal stuff is there, but none of it gets in the way of how immediate it feels once you’re in the right headspace for it. I hope the recent exposure Angine de Poitrine has garnered will inspire them to create even bolder works in the future. If there’s any grievance worth mentioning, it’s that they’re probably capable of going even deeper with this sound, but for now, they’ve tapped into something special here, revealing themselves as masters of balancing unconventional songwriting with accessibility.
Live Performance on KEXP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ssi-9wS1so
