Festivals around the world are clamouring to book them; newspapers and magazines are trying, and thus far failing, to get a precious exclusive interview. In 20 years of music journalism, I thought I had received every kind of knock back there is to be had from publicists gatekeeping the hottest music acts on the planet. But when I requested a chat with Angine de Poitrine for Big Issue, I was told that it’s “sadly off the cards at present… simply as their communication is via hand signals and extra-terrestrial language”. That’s definitely a first.
What on earth is all the fuss about? The answer lies partly in microtonality. A word which will mean nothing to non-guitar geeks, but which, simply put, involves using a specialised instrument featuring extra frets, allowing for pitches smaller than a semitone (notes between notes, if you like). It’s what gives Angine de Poitrine’s breakneck riffs – played on a highly proggy twin-neck electric guitar and bass and looped and layered using pedals – their characteristically queasy, off-kilter and unusual texture and feel.
Veering from shredding metal to elasticated funk via Afro-pop and klezmer inflections, embellished with bursts of unintelligible Dalek-like vocals, Angine de Poitrine Vol II is an absolute riot of a listen. But in our very visually fixated online world, these Canucks’ real coup may well lie in shrewdly recognising that, for all their music’s obvious qualities, were it performed merely by two more serious-looking dudes in ripped jeans and T-shirts, it might have only reached the usual limited crowd. By instead getting their scissors and sewing kits out and matching their outsized jams with outsized outfits, it makes for a surrealist, pseudo-theatrical spectacle that’s as eye-catching as it is ear-grabbing.
And it adds an element of good old-fashioned mystery to the equation. Angine de Poitrine is “an anonymous artistic project,” they emphasise in their press statements, leaning into the enigma of it all. “Any speculation regarding the identities of its members is unverified and not endorsed by the band.” Welcome to The Masked Singer for 6 Music dads.
So who really are Khn and Klek de Poitrine? Probably a pair of lesser-known guitar-heads from the Saguenay music scene. But why let the rumours stop there. Sting and Shaggy? Hall and Oates? Salt-N-Pepa? Robson and Jerome? The fun may lie in never knowing.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.bigissue.com ’
