Vol.II

Review of Vol.II by Angine de Poitrine

How lucky we are that, in this endless universe, Khn de Poitrine and Klek de Poitrine found their way to us. These two rock-loving, microtonal, big-nosed, French-speaking aliens have crash-landed on this tiny Earth with some of the best math rock I have heard in some time.

It’s remarkable how fast these dotted freaks have taken over. Like many of us earthlings, I had never heard of them until they beamed an incredible live performance our way via KEXP. Now they sell out concert halls, ready to conquer us and steal all our music.

Khn de Poitrine and Klek de Poitrine are some of the most in-sync musicians I have ever seen, though when you’re aliens, telepathy probably helps. Their live performances are mesmerizing to watch, the otherworldly flow they maintain is unlike anything else. Drummer Klek de Poitrine holds such a tight groove that, even with that big nose wobbling all over the place, he creates the perfect foundation for Khn de Poitrine to lay down hypnotizing riff after riff on his double-necked guitar and bass.

Angine de Poitrine maintain their light-speed rise with some new intergalactic cuts. The singles “Mata Zyklek” and “Fabienk” had already proven major successes before the album even landed.

“Wooooomyyyseellll” – Angine de Poitrine (I think)

“Fabienk” is the perfect opening track, with the album’s first riff sounding so far removed from the tones and chords we are used to on the western reaches of terra firma. Khn de Poitrine loops his microtonal guitar and bass over each other, bare-footed, his pedalboard so vast you would think it was the cockpit of their crash-landed spaceship. The track is infectious throughout, and just before you settle too comfortably, Angine de Poitrine pulls the rug out halfway through, switching up the bass and guitar riff the entire song was built upon, but only after a brief exchange in their unknown language, punctuated by that iconic wave dance, whether to conclude the transmission or simply to remind us how low we humans really are.

The more Arabian-sounding “Mata Zyklek” contrasts perfectly with “Fabienk.” Rather than a slow build-up, the song warps you straight into hyperdrive, with a fast rhythm anchored by Klek’s drums and underpinned by Khn’s bassline, freeing him to play the kind of music that all but confirms these aliens touched down in the Middle East and made a trade, handing over their pyramid blueprints in exchange for a crash course in Arabic music.

“Noaw, Noaw” – Angine de Poitrine (I hope)

Before Vol. II even dropped, KEXP had already aired “Sarniezz,” a track the duo had yet to release on earthly streaming platforms. The bass truly shines on this one, pulling you up a zero-gravity corridor, floating you back down, then up again, then down, all building until the tempo hits like an ejection seat and sends you spinning. I have yet to listen to this track without going absolutely space-shit at the switch-up.

“Utzp” sounds like a group of observing aliens watched SpongeBob and decided to write their own version of the opening theme. It is the least serious track on the album and admittedly not my favourite, though there is something deeply loveable about the fact that two incredibly gifted musicians, on this planet or any other, have the nerve to put something this goofy on a record.

“Yor Zarad” returns to the familiar sound of Khn de Poitrine’s microtonal guitar and bass riffing, with Klek de Poitrine holding a steady tempo underneath. You can almost see the nose wobbling without even watching. What the track does better than most is those sudden moments where everything stops and the riff resets, looped but shifted, keeping the same tone and tempo while pulling the rug out completely. The best example comes near the end, where Khn drops into a much darker bass sound that genuinely makes you wonder if the probing was always part of the plan.

Already at the end of this Mantra-Rock Dada-Pythago-Cubist Orchestra intergalactic journey with world destroyer Khn and destroyer of worlds Klek. The closing track “Angor” shifts into a more grounded, though still unmistakably microtonal sound, with an added tambourine, one they have yet to subject to microtonal modification.

What a wonderful addition to our earthly musical landscape. Khn de Poitrine and Klek de Poitrine show that staying true to your own weirdness and working hard can take you places, even if those places are several galaxies away. If I had to offer one point of feedback, it would be that the second half of the album feels slightly weaker compared to the singles, but who can blame them, conquering a world, traveling the galaxy, hiding dice everywhere, and pioneering an entirely new genre is bound to be tiresome. I cannot wait to see these two live and discover whatever they warp into our futile little human brains next.

Featured Tracks

Mata Zyklek

Fabienk

Sarniezz