Angine de Poitrine are the most thrilling Canadian mystery since David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds

Though the anonymous Québécois duo had been gigging quietly around the Great White North for years, a single KEXP session last December at France’s Rennes Festival rapidly made them viral superstars

In bobbing paper-mâché masks and monochromatic wardrobes, these two “space-time voyagers”—known only as Klek de Poitrine and Khn de Poitrine—make weirdly danceable math-rock for muffled drums and comically fretted microtonal guitar

Self-described as a “Mantra-Rock Dada Pythagorean-Cubist Orchestra,” they’ve managed to rack up better view counts than the Tiny Desk Concerts from Clipse and Weezer

A copy of their debut, 2024’s Vol

I, has already sold for more than $1,500 on Discogs

YouTube commentator Rick Beato addressed the sensation in a video called “Please STOP Sending Me This

and Europe tour are selling out in minutes

Somehow, the hottest rock band in the world sound like a funk-metal Ruins and look like they snuck a double-necked guitar onto the set of Beetlejuice

Their sudden, overwhelming success seems like something of a fluke since none of their obvious touchpoints are remotely fashionable

There’s definitely a little King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard in their hypnotic churn and microtonal melodies, but beyond that, you’re swerving into serious dorkery: Think the ill-angled prog jabberwocky of ’70s French zeuhl bands like Magma or Art Zoyd; the demented herky-jerk of ’80s outsiders like Renaldo and the Loaf or Zoogz Rift; the heady grooves of Primus, Discipline-era King Crimson, or early Battles; the costumed performance noise of ’00s loft-punx like Forcefield, or the similarly two-toned Yip-Yip; maybe even the spate of Turkish psych-rock reissues that started emerging around 20 years ago

The band rides for Arto Lindsay and gamelan records but also Gentle Giant’s hyper-intricate prog, and John Scofield’s Bonnaroo-funk outing Überjam

The first three tracks on Vol

II provide proper studio versions of their four-song KEXP set (the honking, space-choogle “Sherpa” opened Vol

All three are stellar examples of the band’s polyrhythm games

Angine is not Dillinger Escape Plan or Naked City leaping wildly between time signatures—a loop pedal serves as the third member of the band, so every song is generally locked into a pulse

Instead, Angine de Poitrine are more like Meshuggah or Dawn of Midi, establishing a meter and then creating rhythmic illusions using creative bursts of syncopation

Opener “Fabienk” is a simple 7/8

What makes Angine de Poitrine special is how they wiggle and writhe within that structure, filling the grid with weird rhythmic curlicues, ill-timed accents, and unlikely hooklets

Khn’s riffs span large gulfs of time so they lose their familiar shape, punctuating the air in strange polygons

“Sarniezz” is a basic 6/8, it only sounds weird because it takes Khn four bars until he repeats his Frith-ian melody and Klek alternates between swung time and traditional 4/4 caveman pound

When they lean back and sledgehammer that random second sixteenth note subdivision, it’s like synchronized swimming

The pair claim they have been playing together for 20 years, and their telekinetic bond is apparent in these twisted arrangements