Into the Microtonal Labyrinth: A Review and Exploration of Angine De Poitrine's Vol.ii

Words: Tom Gensler

Sometimes, years worth of hard working and artistic craft and musicianship can pay off

after one single moment that engulfs social media. It might seem random, it might seem

weird, it might even seem alien; but sometimes the left-field really does create interesting

media discourse. We’ve seen this sort of thing on smaller levels before, with acts like

Black Midi gaining traction from the UK’s windmill scene, the home of the modern avant-

garde located in London, and it could be argued that Geese have experienced the same

thing, their arguable left-field sound, ideologies and lyrics catching people’s minds and

ears in a captivating way that’s both divisive and overwhelmingly positive. This

phenomenon isn’t all new though; imagine what the people of NYC, and the rest of the

world, thought when they heard Heroin by The Velvet Underground, or, let’s be honest,

most of their early discography. When things are weird, or new, or kind of twisted and

confusing, us humans talk about it, spreading music like an infectious virus, and social

media has just amplified this to whole new levels. Now, it's not just your home or your

country that’s going to get infected, it's the world, and the latest, grooviest and most insane

sonic infection, Angine de Poitrine, has arrived, seemingly overnight, but in reality, they’ve

been causing alien chaos for a while now.

When talking about Angine de Poitrine, we have to talk about microtonal music. For those

who don’t know, microtonal music is 'music that uses intervals smaller than a semitone', in

short. It's music that uses notes in-between the frets (on a guitar), and on a piano,

it's music that uses notes between the keys, and therefore, special instruments or

adjustments are needed. We are not normally exposed to, and so, not used to, microtones,

and so they come across as weird, abrasive, and sometimes it just doesn’t sound right.

This is not a bad thing, of course, but it does take a while to get used to and it can be

nauseating at times, though the duo make the absolute best of it. Angine’s de Poitrine’s

music all relies on microtones. Are they the first act ever to use microtones? No, of course

not. Notably, Australia’s experimental stalwarts King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard

performed microtonal music on their 2017 album Flying Microtonal Banana, and the style

has also been taken on by Jacob Collier, though, unlike Collier’s over-produced prog-pop

work, Angine de Poitrine manage it extremely well and make it listenable in a new way.

They’ve just released their second album, Vol.II, a deceptively simple title for the controlled

microtonal chaos to come. It is the direct follow-up to 2024’s Vol.I: their extremely strong

debut. As a whole, the album has the near-exact production qualities, and extremely

similar vibe though, Vol.II definitely pushes things a bit further, for the better. Vol.I is the

setup, the basis, and Vol.II expands on it and shows the pure musicianship of our mystery

men again, just with a bit more. However, based on clips and videos, the songs off both albums were written simultaneously or very close together, so listening to them as one two-part work is an option; a fun one.

The album’s opener, Fabienk, is my favourite of the band so far, or, more precisely, the

song’s final three(ish) minutes. It begins with the typical build-up structure of an Angine de

Poitrine song, with all the pieces coming together, the spiky, jangly guitar, the striking funky

bass, and the snappy, in-the-pocket drums. But, at around the 2:55 mark it takes a

completely different shape; it could be a completely different song altogether. As this segment builds separately and spearheads the end of the track, sharing little to no rhythmic or sonic motifs. However, these final three minutes are insanely good, marked by a really funky bassline, spiky guitar again (admittedly the spiky guitar is constant across all the band’s work but it's putting in overtime here). However, the really special part is the abstract vocal part. I like to dissect songs, but across this album I’m struggling. Everything is a sort of puzzle. I think it's an original vocal pitched up, but it could easily be a sample. It's amazing, though, whatever it is.

When I say the band are a puzzle, that they’re a mystery, I mean it. The two members are

completely unknown, even in this internet age. Their song titles all appear to be nonsense

and a mix-match of languages and sounds, somewhat akin to the vocal parts in Fabienk. I looked into the etymology of the titles and absolutely nothing shows up, yet each title

seems to be unique and not following any logical pattern. Originally, I believed it to be

French or some casual Quebec-dialect version, as the duo hail from there, one of the only

solid facts about them, but I was wrong. However, the band’s name is French and

translates to angina pectoris, which is chest pain. Every search gives a result that just

confuses things more, but it's fun that way. Annoying from the point of view of someone

who enjoys going down internet rabbit holes, but still, very fun. There’s a suave genius to the sheer bizarreness of everything the band does. Sonic and physical art in funky form. We

haven’t even touched on the bizarre outfits the band are clad in, the two very distinct

characters they play. There’s just so much to them, and it's impossible to keep it all out of

the mind when listening. They’re an experience, not just another band.

Mata Zylek is an aggressive, punky six minutes that definitely veers into King Gizzard territory. The song structures are always interesting, the build of it all, as the songs definitely become more traditionally listenable the longer they go, and the more layers. The abstract sharp vocals here are amazing too. The harmonies, however short they last, are brilliant. The buzzy sting of the vocals is really interesting, they never linger, and not many parts in any of their songs do linger, there’s always changes and shifts and left-turns. Each song is a microtonal labyrinth.

Sarniezz is one of their biggest songs; it's really grabbed the internet. The simplistic

drum beginning following into a funky evolution is addictive, there’s a chaotic nuance to the

stops and starts, and the hi-hat work on the drums is amazing. Absolutely every note,

every beat, every sound, is extremely well thought out. It might sound like chaos, but I can

absolutely assure you none of it is at all. They are modern musical geniuses. The song is shouty, and surprisingly, the non-abrasive vocals towards the end are really cool, too.

Utzp has an Eastern-European folk feel to it to begin with, before shifting into thumping,

soaring rock. The blend of genre is smart here, as the band do not lose any of what makes

them themselves whilst ebbing and flowing between styles and rhythms. The tightness and

just how in touch the duo are across this whole album are awe-inspiring, there’s a

confidence and brotherhood in their music.

Yor Zarad has a slightly more distinguishable name, Zarad means ambush in Hebrew, so

that could be something, or more likely it's pure coincidence. Again, it's punchy and

powerful and weird like the rest of the songs; solid and powerful and constantly shifting, and the closer, Angor, is aggressive and really strong, hammering in very similar

tones to everything else.

In the first issue of Gerard Way’s (yes, that Gerard Way, from My Chemical Romance)

version of the comic Doom Patrol, the main character and antagonist, Niles Caulder, plays a

keyboard that makes a music note only defined by a fly emoji. In the best way possible

that could be Angine De Poitrine’s sound; the strange sci-fi fly sound. Similarly, this album

sounds like it could be the soundtrack to the abandoned Alejandro Jorodowsky Dune film.

Overall, this is an amazing, experimental and sonically vibrant album from the secret

Quebec duo, one that showcases their extremely honed musicianship and creative ability.

The blend of art, nonsense, sound and performance is really admirable. It's ambitious but

everything pays off. You cannot physically separate any one part of them. The looks, the

sound, the noises, the names, the mystery; it all blends into one bizarrely genius machine.

This is a stunningly left-field work, and the make of a modern classic. Maybe the future is

microtonal, and these guys have returned to tell us.

I’m still not fully convinced they’re human.