Approaching Angine de Poitrine’s second album with open ears is a singular experience. If you’re not already familiar with their music, the range that unfolds is bewildering, hypnotic, and addictive. The first minute of “Fabienk,” which feels like witnessing the ignition of an extraterrestrial vehicle — from takeoff to full speed — is enough to make it clear that we are in the presence of a fascinating record.
Within their own cosmogony, Khn and Klek de Poitrine are two space-time travelers fascinated by hot dogs, pyramids, and rock and roll. Hidden behind their absurd masks, the duo deliver on Vol. II a sweeping showcase of fast, precise instrumental math rock, where funk, jazz, rock, and experimental music intertwine, forming a cocktail that may evoke Battles, John Scofield, Primus, or King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. A mantra-rock Dada Pythago-cubist orchestra, in their own words.
Feverish, dissonant, and in constant metamorphosis, the songs defy standard rock structures and play with unusual time signatures (10/4 in “Mata Zylek” or 7/4 in “Fabienk,” for example). To overcome the intrinsic limitations of being a duo, Khn uses a custom-made double-neck guitar-bass built by a luthier in his native Québec, featuring microtonal frets. These place at his fingertips additional notes that do not “exist” on Western instruments but are characteristic of other sound worlds — “Uztp,” with its gypsy flair, offers a good example. In addition, with bare feet and inexplicable dexterity, Khn operates the pedalboards that generate intricate loops, switching between guitar and bass without pause. Behind a stripped-down drum kit, Klek provides muscle and a surgical precision more typical of a jazz drummer. A firm strike or a touch of swing can instantly transform rock songs into funk, disco, or techno.
On “Mata Ziklek,” the similarities to King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard become unmistakable, while on “Angor” they sound like Led Zeppelin on amphetamines. Taken as a whole, the album’s six tracks form a brilliant, intense, danceable, and fun collection of songs that could just as easily open the doors to jazz festivals as to heavier rock gatherings.
As of today, it remains to be seen how long they will be able to preserve their anonymity following the recent and meteoric success of their live session on the KEXP YouTube channel. Though in truth, as their motto goes: All of which mostly matters to humans. Angine de Poitrine, for their part, are just happy to play rock’n’roll.