Experimental Rock Duo Angine de Poitrine: “If Math Was Music”

James Ryan Prizant ’29
prizantjry@lakeforest.edu
Copy Editor

In the past year, the phrase “Angine de Poitrine” has soared in popularity, but not among French-speaking sufferers of chest angina symptoms. Instead, the phrase has become associated with two self-proclaimed aliens sporting black-and-white polka-dotted papier-mache costumes, playing some of the strangest, most avant-garde yet catchy rock music released in the past few years.

Describing themselves as a “mantra-rock Dada Pythago–Cubist orchestra,” Angine de Poitrine play mostly instrumental, musically progressive, experimental rock music featuring microtones — notes that don’t exist in the common 12-note chromatic scale, making the songs sound strange and unique. Each of their two albums consists almost entirely of gibberish-titled 4-8 minute-long songs featuring nothing but electric guitar, bass, and drums, with the occasional distorted or manipulated lyric or utterance from band members Khn and Klek de Poitrine (pseudonyms).

The band got its “big break” in February after a live performance of theirs for Seattle-based radio station KEXP was posted on YouTube, amassing over 50 million views and 515,000 likes in eight months. The four songs making up the performance have become their most popular, including “Sherpa,” enjoyed by sophomore Quinn Breeze.