Angine de Poitrine (angina pectoris) is not of our world. They descend from planet Earth’s rock dieties, and themselves are space-time voyagers who have stayed with us due to their interest in three of our exports…our rock music, our pyramids, and our hot dogs. The brothers, Klek and Khn Poitrine, speaking only in their foreign planetary language of guttural distortions, deliver fast-paced microtonal math-rock directly inspired by our acid-rock and disco, yet completely challenging our ideas of western music’s tuning, timing signatures, and aesthetics.
Behind the facade of the asymmetrical polka-dotted costumes, painted skin, and papier-mâché masks lie two extremely talented musicians hailing from Saguenay, Quebec, who remain unnamed beyond their alien personas. Originally a joke to conceal their identity from other music projects they were working on, the duo never expected to garner such a following for the forms they now inhabit. They’ve found support from international fans of all ages, their music spilling over the border and through the seas for three years now, but very recently, they have been gaining immense traction here in the States as their live performance with renowned music station KEXP has accumulated over a million views in just over ten days.
The music created by these two beings is incredibly complex. Not only is each track built from a live layering of a double-necked microtonal guitar and bass by Khn, but Klek is also constantly navigating the ever-changing time signatures to keep them both on track, making micro adjustments to any timing of the looped bassline or guitar riffs. The two also have microphones within their oversized heads, allowing them to communicate with the crowd and add vocals through their distorted throat calls and excited coos that litter the tracks. The language is not one of humans, so we just do our best to sing along and to try to dance in a way that makes sense with their polyrhythms. In a short French news interview I watched, the duo groaned into the mics whenever a question was asked, and had their true, distinguishable answers sent to the news station to be read aloud by their team members.
Beginning with their hands in the air, formed into a pyramid by touching their thumbs to thumbs and index to index, the duo initiates the crowd into their world with this mutual understanding. Then, they rip. “Vol. 1” was the first EP the duo released in 2024, which was introduced with one of their strongest tracks, “Sherpa.” Beginning with an ear-twitching riff, Klek builds the intro on the microtonal neck of his conjoined beast layer by layer, complicating the track with each pass. Khn begins a slow thumping of his drums to join him as the song manifests somewhere in the air between them. The two allow a minute and a half of buildup before Klek drops his hands to his bass and Khn breaks the track loose into an all-encompassing entanglement of noise.
The duo has also released two singles off of their upcoming EP “Vol. 2,” releasing on April 3, 2026, those being “Fabienk” and “Mata Zyklek,” both containing as much energy and intricacy as the EP before. “Fabienk” begins with off, “wrong” sounding guitar notes that are heavily distorted, and yet, as with all their songs and the nature of this polyrhythmic prog-math-rock, as soon as the bass and drums come in, it weirdly works in this far out way. The sound is similar to jazz in the sense that there is so much experimentation and a breakdown of the typical western music sound, that the notes may sound wrong at first, until the song is elaborated on and built into it’s full self, then it becomes an incredibly unique showcasing of skill from extremely gifted musicians who just happen to be in elaborate, vaguely phallic nosed costumes and body paint.
Though obviously humorous, the visual of the morphing music from their drums matching his sleek, rounded head and swinging, low-hanging nose of Khn juxtaposed against the tall, sharp, cornered head and extended, erect nose of Klek, who punches the cutting riffs into the track, is a wonderful dichotomy to have on stage. Also, the dance moves they pull out for “Fabienk” are pretty great, too, which may bump it up my list of favorites.
While it’s easy to look at something like these two guys in far-out costumes making music that sounds nonsensical, it's important to remember that music, primarily, is not a job or a business; it is first and foremost art, self-expression. Historically, this kind of wacked-out absurdist art tightly coincides with rises in fascist movements. The duo is self-described as “Orchestre Rock Microtonal Dada-pythago-cubiste” via their Instagram bio, and dadaism and absurdism are niches of art that developed at the beginning of the 20th century as a way to protest the rise in fascism and be an anti-war, anti-bourgeois voice concerning the meat churning machine of WWI, one of the deadliest human conflicts ever to be recorded.
While the duo is not explicitly political from my introduction to them, their participation in art is, and with the rise of fascism in the US and our relationships with surrounding countries, as well as fascism rising across the world, we are bound to see more absurdist movements that are trying make sense of the baffling world flooding our feeds with horrific news every day. So when you see them perform, laugh, enjoy yourself, and find the lack of control over the absurd to be a safer lack of control than we have in the world right now, but don’t for a second count out their talent just because of a funny costume. They are incredibly talented artists creating a breath of levity in a space that is desperately calling for it.
Besides, in the ever-engulfing slew of AI regurgitations, isn’t it nice to see something with such a scream of humanity? Such a deep thumbprint from its creators pushed into the music we’re hearing? That’s why I’m so excited about these two weirdos. Their music is complex, interesting, and fun, with new sounds that are continuously being toyed with. I begin an album or a live performance, and I’m overwhelmed by artistry that is undoubtedly crafted through such an appreciation of the lineage of music experimentation before it, that just reminds you how much fun music and self-expression are supposed to be.
I’m absolutely stoked to see these guys gaining traction, and with shows across Europe and Canada throughout early 2026, their time in the US is coming. With a show just recently announced in NYC on September 9th, hopefully we’re seeing the first of many dates, as I want Angine de Poitrine to be around and experimenting for a long time. The music scene desperately needs this kind of highly skilled radical absurdism thrown into its mix.
