Vol.II

About

Thanks in large part to a viral KEXP session posted to YouTube in February 2026, the Angine de Poitrine hype meteor struck planet Earth with such speed and force, we almost didn’t have time to appreciate the sheer absurdity that music that sounds like <i>this</i> has the power to capture the collective imagination. Because the wildest thing about this Quebec power duo isn’t their eye-popping polka-dotted costumes (soon to be a fixture at every hipster’s Halloween party), it’s the fact that they’ve pushed discussion of microtonal guitar tunings and 17/4 time signatures from the darkest recesses of prog message boards into mainstream music discourse. But even when you listen to them without the visual novelty, Angine de Poitrine’s appeal is undeniable: Their second album manages to condense the entire history of brain-bending rock music—from Kings Crimson to Gizzard—into a sound that’s both playfully delirious and oddly danceable. These six nonsensically titled tracks average six minutes apiece, yet they all place a premium on forward momentum, allowing double-neck-guitarist Khn and drummer Klek to constantly shapeshift in surprising ways. “Fabienk” magically whips its Morse code melody and stuttering breaks into a mutant-disco groove, topped with illegibly ecstatic chants that add to the sense of amusement park ride hysteria, while the fleet-fingered fretboard noodling of “Mata Zyklek” tees up a turbocharged sprint that makes you feel like you’re outrunning a bee swarm on a motorbike with snapped brake cables. Throw the countrified klezmer-metal of “Utzp” and the math-punk blitzkrieg of “Yor Zarad” into the roiling cauldron, and you’ve got all the proof you need that you can indeed teach old prog new tricks.

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

Start your shelf to read the full take →