~~ recommended by Joseph Bologne ~~
The Off-World Aesthetic of Quebec’s Angine de Poitrine
One cannot look away from Angine de Poitrine (angina pectoris).
These masked, strangely hatted, prosthetic-nosed, symmetrically polka-dotted, voice-distorted, oddly gesturing figures who go by Klec de Poitrine and Khn de Poitrine (their real names are unknown) are from Saguenay, Quebec.
It’s a region I visited long ago, on a drive from Quebec City up to Chicoutimi on the Riviére Saguenay, the start of a long trek that led to the tip of the glorious Gaspé Peninsula. I recall quaint villages and gorgeous rural settings that don’t compute while listening to area natives Klec and Khn, who create music of raw rock energy, with hypnotic and hyper-precise polyrhythmic groove patterns and a microtonal melodic language enabled by Khn’s double-necked, strangely fretted guitar/bass combo. The description on their website requires no translation: MANTRA-ROCK DADA PYTHAGO-CUBISTE.
Klec’s drumming is unfailingly deep in the pocket, never stiff, but rather elastic as it undergirds Khn’s layered, superimposed guitar/bass riffs, which shift like fractals, with jagged shapes breaking in all directions. The beats are infectious no matter how abstruse and unstable. Angine de Poitrine is compulsively listenable — and impossibly inviting once you take in the visual presentation.
There’s an almost dystopian eeriness in how Klec and Khn de Poitrine regard one another in their performance art. They pause between songs and seem to share spoken messages, but it’s sounds not words, fully incomprehensible, futuristic, like some secret robotic or ritualistic code. Or they’ll share a mysterious glance, then stretch their arms or do a little dance move. Sometimes before or after a song, they each form a triangle with their hands and face one another, as if sending a radio transmission, or making a salutation before a kung fu match.
And then they’re off again into another funky, go-for-broke math-rock construction that breaks apart Western equal temperament along the way. Comparisons come to mind: I think of the dissonant noise-rock abstractions of Zs, or the mind-bending extreme-metal guitar of Mick Barr, or the virtuosic duo intensity of Domi & JD Beck. One friend astutely cited Dave “Fuze” Fiuczynski on the microtonal guitar front.
The distended, unnatural noses; the pajama-like getups; Khn’s long golden rope wig, hands and bare feet caked white with mime makeup; Klec’s costume-matching sheet draped over the entire drumkit, yet another layer of concealment but chosen with sonic intention no doubt: This is something beyond gimmickry, in my view. For visual and artistic reference points one could look to Peter Gabriel in early Genesis, or to Buckethead, or to Glass Beams.
The costume summons a certain mental state that is integral to the whole. It is part of the creative act, certainly in the case of this anonymous, freakishly talented Quebecois pair. At press time they were heading to France for a series of shows, so an interview had to wait. But an interview can happen, as per their very responsive management. What form will that take? I’m as curious as you are. JT
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