Playing barefoot, with polka dots painted on his feet, Khn runs that guitar through a looping setup, pressing pedals to stack guitar parts on top of bass lines — riffs, melodies, dissonant chords, frenetic solos — while Klek’s drumming underlines every essential beat and syncopation.
Although they’ve maintained their anonymity, Khn and Klek have revealed in interviews that they have been making music together for two decades, since their early teens. They first performed masked in 2019 when they were booked twice in a week at the same venue and didn’t think anyone would come to hear the same band so soon. But what started as a joke became an identity full of playful concealment. The rare vocals in their songs are distorted and unintelligible. Between songs, they raise thumb-and-forefinger triangles in what looks like a ritual.
While the costumes and anonymity have clearly helped draw attention, Angine de Poitrine’s music is no gimmick; it’s a feat of live unity and dexterity, hand played with zero margin for error. The duo has plenty of forebears and reference points, among them Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Primus, King Crimson, Tinariwen, Battles and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. Its compositions flaunt the tricky odd meters of math-rock and zigzag melodies that hint at Middle Eastern, Asian, Balkan and North African music, along with psychedelia, funk and progressive rock. It’s music of precision, agility and stamina, adding up to a contagious manic energy.
“Vol. II,” like “Vol. 1” from 2024, contains six tightly wound tracks. It includes “Sarniezz,” which starts as a bluesy shuffle, then breaks into double time with a pileup of gnarled microtonal runs, and “Utzp,” which could be a bent klezmer tune. “Mata Zyklek” revs up to breakneck, five-beat buzz-bombing, and “Yor Zarad” seesaws between jabbing riffs and hurtling melodies. “Fabienz” has a stop-start tune that turns funky, and “Angor” works variations on insistently repeated notes.
The band fully understands the power of rhythm, repetition, dissonance, surprise and noise, while it delivers them in a whimsical package. Angine de Poitrine knows that a joke can hold a deeper truth.
