Ahead on Differential

Like most of the world, I first encountered math-rock duo Angine de Poitrine (French for angina pectoris) in my YouTube subscription feed. On February 5th, the venerable Seattle radio station KEXP premiered a four-song, 28-minute set by the band, recorded two months prior as part of the Trans Musicales festival in Rennes, France. The performance has since gone turbo-viral (8.8 million views at time of writing) in a way videos of rock bands don’t usually go. There’s a you-gotta-see-this novelty to the group that’s evident even before they start playing: the costumes, the polka dots, the voice filters, the double-neck guitar, the wordmark set in the Twin Peaks font, the conspiracy theorist-baiting triangle imagery. We haven’t even gotten into the band’s kayfabe lore yet. What kind of wackadoo art project am I about to listen to?

Then the Poitrine brothers, Khn on guitar and Klek on drums (the duo wishes to remain anonymous, Residents-style), kick into “Sarniezz,” the third track on their then-upcoming second record. Don’t even try to buy a physical copy of it now, it’s perpetually out of print, that’s how turbo-viral these guys have gone (but by all means cop the digital version). Once the rhythmic scaffolding of “Sarniezz” is built, Khn loops and layers microtonal guitar licks until the song morphs from a woozy post-punk shuffle into a double-time pit opener. That’s part of the Angine de Poitrine magic: their sound—microtonal guitar and bass, drums, loop station—is as versatile as it is minimal. They establish a melodic baseline, iterate on it for a while, take a dynamic left turn somewhere along the way, then fold the streams into each other. What impresses me most when I see these guys perform is Khn’s live editing of the song currently being played: which loops are recorded when, when to mute them and bring them back in, and when to override them, all done while playing two guitars that have twice as many frets as usual, usually in uncommon time. It’s a feat of rare mental, physical, and musical dexterity.

But all the technical proficiency and visual gimmickry in the world wouldn’t matter if the songs weren’t any good. Friends, these songs are good. Listening to this band is fun as hell. “Mata Zyklek,” another Vol. II track featured in the band’s KEXP set, is a “Rock Lobster”-esque surf-punk number fit for a monster movie. Vol. II’s standout may well be “Utzp,” the first song on the album not performed in the KEXP set. What begins as a jaunty country polka slowly mutates into a thrash-metal face-melter worthy of Headbangers Ball. Elsewhere on the album, I hear their brothers in microtonality King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Brain-era Primus, Pitchfork Hall of Famers Battles (remember 2007?), 80s King Crimson, fellow Saguenay space cases Voivod, and any number of bands that put records out on Touch and Go in the 90s. Imagine a happy Shellac. Imagine Polvo having a crack at a dancefloor classic. Imagine Don Caballero scoring a sci-fi spaghetti western.

In the weeks since becoming the most viral band on the planet, Angine de Poitrine have been booked and busy: their first shows in English Canada and the United States are slated for the summer, followed by a European tour and a smattering of shows at home, including a tour-ending two-night stand at Montréal’s legendary Club Soda in November. They’re on the bill at Fuji Rock and King Gizz’s Field of Vision festival. This success is to be celebrated. Angine de Poitrine is an algorithmic aberration. They are a pop of colour contrasting the usual griege mush the feed prefers, which is ironic considering their colour scheme. I love this band, long may they run! But fellas, please, I need you to press some CDs for the old heads out there.

#up