Angine de Poitrine – Fabienk

We end the week with Rock is Back day! Or should that be Rock is Math?

[Video]
[8.43]Tim de Reuse: Angine de Poitrine hail from a small city in the north of Quebec whose economy rests entirely on blueberry farms and lumber mills, totally disconnected from the zeitgeist apart from a few King Gizzard CDs that must have been airdropped in sometime in the 2010s; only this kind of cultural isolation could convince you to play something as untrendy as a two-necked guitar in 2026. I mean, for an online music culture whose guitar-music aesthetic sense is calibrated on a scale centered on Geordie Greep and Geese, these polka-dot French-Canadians are kind of embarrassing, aren’t they? Well, yes, and that’s their strength, I think. If I were to come up with a thesis on why they’re having this kind of moment, it’d be that we in the guitar-music club were all kind of hungry for something this self-indulgent and goofy, even if we’d never admit it. Microtonality is usually the purview of academic capital-c Composer types, but as irritating as the Youtube-discourse on it is, their usage of quarter tones reads to me as more or less unpretentious because it’s in service of a concrete goal: that of bizarre, nauseating melodic contours and imparting an overall sense of unfamiliarity. They’re restricted compositionally by their reliance on a loop pedal (again, a piece of kit that’s very much not in vogue) but they make up for this by playing to the strengths of the medium. Here in “Fabienk” they start off in a peppy 7/8, overlay their main theme in what feels like (8 + 6)/4 to build tension, and then after the break build the whole thing back up with a much more steady four-on-the-floor beat that partially recontextualizes the main theme. It’s clever! More importantly, it’s just the right amount of clever; enough sophistication to trick the brain into thinking that it’s hearing something new while still stimulating the nerve centers that tell you you’re listening to something fun. It might not be a gimmick that lasts, but it’s an excellent gimmick. (That said — the mixing? Not great. No sense of space. Disastrously dry. You can tell they’re a live-first band who don’t know what to do with their studio output yet. Hire me next time.)
[9]

Nortey Dowuona: “Fabienk” is at first ugly, gnarled and jagged, only occasionally resolving into a recognizable rhythm. Once doing so, it’s lumpen and misshapen, refusing to smooth down until a drum fill renders the gnarled nature smoother and more palatable, but it refuses to settle there, in fact, rushing away down a set of dead end paths, never resealing itself into the safe pop structure, but taking part in the math rock patterns of disorientation and recognition. Then it finally smashes into a brick wall, screams Sebastien and confused, stumbles to its feet, a little more bland and dry, yet not resolving into a catchier rhythm, simply rumbling along, refusing to move, unti the rowdy sound effects wreak havoc above, yet the course never changes despite each drum fill, this bass line and this drum patter and this parallel guitar carry on, refusal the core principle, refusal of structure, comfort or even constant reignition of the flames of raging fury. Then suddenly, it crashes back into that wall with a cry of Sebasiten and drops dead.
[10]

Hannah Jocelyn: I understand that they’re gimmicky, but I love the gimmick – reminds me of the DVD series Animusic. Amidst the silliness, there are hooks, specifically the one that starts at 3:34. I’m a piano player so I can’t even jam to this unless anyone knows where to find a microtonal piano. (Please DM me, I want to learn!) I get the “coworker math rock” accusations or whatever, but this is just so fun and goofy that I can’t give it anything less than a perfect score. I just sent it to my family group chat with no comment, I think they’re gonna love it too.
[10]

Al Varela: The benefit of being young enough to not know much about the history and bands of microtonal music is that this music feels fresh and interesting to me. I’m sure there’s more to the subgenre than this weird new duo who look like rejected Tim Burton characters, but if I’m solely focusing on them and this song in particular, “Fabienk” is awesome. Stuttering grooves suffocating each other in a way that’s still incredibly tight and catchy, sprawling all over the place before locking into a thicker bass groove in the second half, this is all cool as hell to me! Very danceable and easy to bob your head along to even with all the bizarre shit around it. Might lose a bit of the novelty without seeing those weird costumes right in front of you as they perform, but it still slaps without it.
[9]

Iain Mew: I’m on good enough terms with math rock to have listened to a couple of other 2026 albums with leanings that way (Plantoid and GDJYB, both recommended). So when I first saw mention of Angine de Poitrine I skipped watching the video and went straight to the album. As such I can say that even outside of the heightening visual context, the sense of effortlessly harnessed raw energy in “Fabienk” was an instant delight, and it has stuck since.
[8]

Ian Mathers: I didn’t think I was going to like Angine de Poitrine, because when I read descriptions of what they do it sounded like a lot of other music I’d been excited to hear based on reading about it, only to find on actual contact my feelings ranged from lukewarm to loathing. Somehow the Quebecois duo have now reversed the trend and they sound like I wanted all those other acts to sound. I think it has something to do with the fact that their music is actually fun to listen to.
[8]

Jel Bugle: What this needs is a really good guitar solo or some saxophone, something to break up the monotony. It’s just riffs with non-standard tuning! A new kind of stoner rock? Slidge?
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