Album Review : Angine de Poitrine - Vol. II (2026)
The first time I was overenthusiastically described the music of Angine de Poitrine a couple months ago, my only reaction was : "I don't even know what a microtonal guitar is". Little did I know, the experience of being described the music of Angine de Poitrine is infinitely more tedious than the experience of hearing it. The psychedelic, amorphous instrumental rock duo have taken over the internet with their now iconic live KEXP performance this winter and have also laid claim to my heart.
On their new record Vol. II, Angine de Poitrine is even sunnier, groovier and easier to love than ever.
Vol. II features six songs and thirty-six minutes of ass-shaking, heart-mending instrumental nerd rock. Forget what you've been told about microtonal guitars, loop pedals and music theory. While it is all technically true, it makes abstraction of the most important variables of Angine de Poitrine: it's incredibly fun and infectious. Klek and Khn have a preternatural chemistry together that makes their music grow on you a little more with every listen. It's colonizing your brain with primal grooves and unknown colors.
This new album opens with the stratospherically catchy Fabienk, a song split in two distinct halves that are rumored to represent their two managers and the illustrate the momentum they've given their career. That's why they are triumphally chanting : "Sébastieeeeeen" halfway through as their managerial swap represented a rebirth of some sort. Fabienk is Angine de Poitrine's most popular song and it has become so by becoming absurdly more groovy over its six and a half minutes runtime.
Vol. II's second single Mata Zyklek is more byzantine, but features its own fun and anthemic riffs that feel both visceral and sophisticated at the same time, the way reappreciating 8-bit gaming as an adult does. It's a more rapturous and less accessible experience than Fabienk overall, but it has an uncharacteristic intensity for an Angine de Poitrine song that gives it a powerful identity. It channels the band's surf rock influences with maximum speed and fire and I find it's what they do best.
Sarniezz features some of Klek's best drumming work to date. A lot has been said about Khn's guitar wizardry an rightfully so, but Klek's impeccable time-keeping and ungovernable grooviness are crucial to why Angine de Poitrine sounds so fucking good. He's a John Bonham type of drummer, who does the simple things with a sense of swagger you just can't teach. That talent is on full display on Sarniezz as his machine-like drumming acts as a countervoice to Khn's crescendoing and decrescendoing loops.
The second half of Vol. II kicks off with polka-inspired number Utzp, which is oddly one of the nerdiest and most nuanced Angine de Poitrine's songs to date. Khn's guitar tells a story that gets more fuzzy and luxuriant with every note and every loop. It explodes into a bombastic false ending before kicking into one of the nastiest, most intense riffs (and the rare solo) doubled by a Klek who's cranking up the intensity up to levels you hadn't yet heard from him. It's a delightful acquired taste.
Surf rock drifts back into the picture on Yor Zarad, another less accessible cut played with fire and brimstone by the alien duo. While it might not be the most memorable song on the record, it once again highlights how ridiculously good Angine de Poitrine are at wrenching up intensity at the end of their songs. It’s one of the features that makes this band great. Even if the songs are long, they gain momentum rather than losing it and never fail to end in an explosion. It's frantic, it's not for everyone, but it's exhilarating.
Only song I care less about is the closer Angor. It’s one of the most self-consciously proggy thing they've done. It’s different enough from the rest of Vol. Il, which I suppose is why they've included it, but it feels a little too straightforwardly King Crimson-y for my own taste. It doesn't quite fit the surf rock alien paradigm they’ve created. Without it, Vol. II would’ve been perhaps the most fun rock record I've heard in years. It’s just odd to have a skippable song on such a strong outing.
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I don't care what Anthony Fantano is saying, Angine de Poitrine's Vol. II is fun, accessible and contagious for what is essentially math rock. It’s one of the most compulsively danceable record you'll hear and I'm talking as an uncoordinated non dancer here. Angine de Poitrine’s gift is not to have introduced alien music upon the normies, but it's to have made it fun and interesting. Serioiusly, if you don’t like this band you're probably not trying very hard because if anything, they are easy to love.
8.4/10
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