Angine de Poitrine celebrate weird with their infectious, microtonal math-rock. A reminder that music doesn’t have to be deep to be perfect. Sometimes it just needs to feel good.
Release date: April 3, 2026 | Spectacles Bonzaï | Bandcamp | Instagram
The Internet is currently a paradox. We have the sum of human creativity at our fingertips, yet we spend half our bandwidth overthinking about whether or not we’re allowed to enjoy things, whether we look or not cool to others rather than being authentic. We’ve become doom and gloom merchants and online detectives, focusing on pointing out what annoys us rather than focusing on actual art right in front of us. I am one of those people who tends to focus on and see the positive side of things and that helped me enjoy Vol. II with an open mind.
I got introduced to Khan and Klek of Angine de Poitrine and their striking visuals, like many others. I can’t recall if I was scrolling through Instagram or YouTube and saw the thumbnail of their KEXP performance; I got intrigued and clicked. For the following 28 minutes, I was hooked. I watched it again, I researched the band, and I shared it with a few of my friends who I thought would enjoy it. Did I discover the next big thing? No, but the sound and the image were fun, thought-provoking, and unexpected. I then discovered that this was spreading way wider and way quicker than I expected, and many people were talking about them. 3 million views, to be exact. Then I saw them being called fake, industry plants, disposable, and other worse things that I won’t bother to mention. Was I in the wrong? What I saw was a couple of friends who had an idea, put it together, and decided to make something fun. And this is exactly what this is to me: fun. This is not the type of music meant to sell or appeal to huge masses. It’s microtonal, instrumental math-rock. It’s meant to reach people who are maybe looking for something a bit different to listen to and dance along. I don’t believe it is deeper than this.
Immediately the album felt familiar. I already knew some of these songs from the live performances I’ve watched over the past weeks, half to be precise. “Fabienk” works very well as an opener, sets the mood and it’s impossible not to shake a leg. “Mata Zyklek” brings a bit of that King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Flying Microtonal Banana energy, high paced noodly riff. “Sarniezz” great bass line. This sounds like what my brain sounds like when I can’t concentrate or when I can’t fall asleep at night. “UTZP” is the first song I don’t recognize and what a trip it is, kind of middle eastern influenced, super trippy and chaotic. “Yor Zarad” has enough twists and turns to not know what to expect next, super groovy riff ending it. “Angor”, the closing track sounds like something that can be on Lullabies To Paralize by Queens Of The Stone Age. Sure, go ahead and call me insane.
Going back to my initial take, if you like Angine de Poitrine, then great. Support their music, their art, or whatever you want to call it. If you don’t, that’s also fine. There’s so much other music to listen to. Take your pick. Whatever option you go for, just go out there and be happy. I know for one I am very satisfied listening to Vol. I and Vol. II whenever I am in the mood for something weird and random and I will continue doing so. It puts a smile on my face when I am having a bad day. I am very happy bands like this exist.
