You may not have only recently first heard of Angine de Poitrine, but they appear to be headed for global superstardom. This despite the fact that they are a Quebec-based prog duo who perform the sort of microtonal music that is fiendishly difficult to perform. But is even harder when you’re wearing masks covered with polka dots.
There is, of course, a fine tradition of pop stars wearing masks: think Daft Punk, Slipknot, Orville Peck. But Angine de Poitrine are something else. Covered head to foot in polka dots, they claim, in a fascinating article in last week's Guardian, to be a pair of aliens called Khn and Klek.
What we do find out is that the duo are both in their mid-30s and as you’d expect from such a technically-accomplished pair, have been playing together for a loooong time, since a mutual friend brought them together as early teens. “(They said) We should play music with him. Why not? I ended up at Klek’s mother’s place making music in the basement, and we started doing that for… for ever.”
During this time, they were both in other bands but somehow always drifted back together. It was another of these groups – one that made a giant piñata before every gig to be smashed to pieces in the moshpit – that gave them the idea for the costumes: “Every aspect of the aesthetic was like: oh yeah, we could do this! Ha ha ha!”
Of the songs, Khn says: “We improvise and make a lot of crap, then you have a little spark. A lot of the songs on the second album (Vol 2, which came out last month), I found one riff that’s got something to it, then you build from that.”
What they build up are loops where “there’s a feeling of anxiousness or something that comes with the repetitions, the frictions with the microtones,” says Klek. “We’re always playing with that feeling, and tension and release.”
Their music has already gone way further than complex math rock usually does. One YouTube video of the pair has notched up 13.7 million views and Vol 2 entered the Canadian album chart at Number 11 last month. The duo seem rather baffled by their apparent success. The music “sounds new for people” suggests Klek, whilst his partner points out: “Since we are ‘popular’ in a certain way – it’s strange for me to say that – we don’t spend much time on the internet because we have a tight schedule.”
They’re also keen to keep their identities secret, for the moment at least. “There is a thing that is interesting in not knowing,” says Klek, before insisting: “We’re not Lady Gaga. We’re not Elton John. We’re two random dudes.”
