Angine de Poitrine: Volume II

Angine de Poitrine: Volume II                    

(Spectacles Bonzai)

Vinyl/Download

Available 3rd April 2026

Quebecois mysterions strike while the iron is decidedly sizzling and release new music hot on the heels of their inevitable viral prominence. The upcoming UK tour is sold out, and MK Bennett is completely sold.

In Ancient Egyptian Spirituality, the letter K is often associated with the concept of Ka, which in ancient Egyptian belief was the vital force, “double,” or spirit that resided in a person, maintaining their energy. It was crucial for spiritual survival after death

Taking over the internet with music is no easy feat these days, even less so if your music is as angular as a mathematician’s lunch box. Add in a lack of a singer to sell or look at and you are essentially pushing your luck unless you have something to set you apart. Angine de Poitrine have two things and one of them is their music. The other is an aesthetic of such magnificent seeming simplicity that it is a marvel. Part Marcel Duchamp, part Frank Zappa and the nostalgic air of a million kids’ TV shows. Low culture meets high with a nod and a wink and the greatest alien funk of some future science fiction that you have ( n ) ever heard of.

Fabienk starts us off, as the sound of early Talking Heads falling down the stairs of a Parisian café zooms into view, impossibly rhythmic and jazz adjacent & hyper-focused, loops within loops swirl around each other before the brief moments of respite, then return slightly changed, a little more frantic, a little more distorted. It’s a potpourri of clashing sound, jazz-tinged solos appear like radio static and everything but the drums disappear until a very funky bassline and a nonsense vocal emerge blinking into the light, dancing away like an organic/analogue Daft Punk. If it eventually turns out that is exactly the case, it simply proves the Punk’s genius. You don’t need electronica to produce the insanely danceable. Krautrock via the self-belief of Joan of Arc, momentous and motorik.

Mata Zyklek starts like the theme from The Addams Family sampled by an old Xerox machine and sent back in time via a landline. The very specific way they have with the rhythm is so upfront that it obliterates everything around it. Like djent metal played without distortion, you can only follow and see where it leads. These songs all exist as the blueprint to a maze, a puzzle you can enjoy whether you engage or not. The military level of lockstep ostinato is no gimmick but a renewed approach to old comforts. The shifting sands beneath its wire in the blood staccato brilliance means it never gets bored, or boring. The voices may well be French or English; it seems immaterial, as it is only here to serve the rhythm anyway.

Though it is hardly noticeable, the aesthetic is perfect 21st century graphic referencing. So old school it appears new and unseen, it is a mix of arthouse and children’s television, Yo Gabba Gabba for academics. An apt fit for the music, which could potentially relate to half a dozen art movements. They do in fact self describe as “Dadaist Pythagorean-Cubist rock”, though the constant adding and removal of motifs has more in common with the more disparate end of techno, Aphex Twin or Squarepusher. A video directed by Chris Cunningham wouldn’t seem out of place.

Sarniezz evolves and devolves in real time. Dissonant but absolutely in tune, rock and roll from another dimension because strange things are indeed afoot at the Circle K. The repetition and looping recall Zappa and the Mothers, but it never sits still long enough to see the thing clearly. Klek and Khn De Poitrine riff away to their heart’s content and nearly always return to the scene of the crime, musically at least. The construction and deconstruction is breathtaking though, like carnies performing quantum mathematics.

UTZP initially sounds like a Greek battle dance before it turns into a chase scene from a Balkan protest cartoon. Black and white and full of muted colour, it heads towards double time then simply stops before turning into a rock and roll extravaganza of relative normality, prog rock that’s more prog than rock. Asymmetrical and microtonal sure, but read in more than one context, it is pure guitar solo heaven, without irony. Technical competence can seem dry as insect husks, but not here; this is pure joy.

Yor Zarad is even more oblique rock & roll, a garage band sent from the past that glitched in the transfer. The constant angularity should be irritating but it’s so masterfully done that you stop noticing. The drums alone are worth the price of entry, a kaleidoscopic run through a dozen time changes while the whole thing makes your head spin. Angor is almost a traditional complicated rock instrumental. Its dysphoria only reveals itself in the details. On the surface it could be found on an unplugged Dream Theatre record. The intro could be Queen, though in the abstract. The ability to straddle all these things is deeply impressive. There’s also John Zorn, NoWave, Miles Davis and Zu’s Bromio.

If the whole thing turns out to be a situationist reckoning, a comment on the Bourgeois art scene and its middle-class obsession with other people’s authenticity, then that’s okay too because it is almost supernaturally entertaining. You imagine the gigs are quite a spectacle and the tickets for the tour are like gold dust but talk about welcome to the show. Plus, Volume I is fantastic too.

Angine De Poitrine’s Instagram | Website | Bandcamp

All words by MK Bennett, you can find his author’s archive here plus his Twitter and Instagram