Angine de Poitrine review – mind-boggling math rock mastery from freaky Québécois duo

Le Poisson Rouge, New York The brilliantly strange experimental band’s live show is a must-see spectacle powered by glorious noise and wild flair Their masks light up now.

To the extent there was a hard news event from Wednesday’s exhilarating sold-out New York debut of Angine de Poitrine, that was it.

The Québécois duo went viral in corners of the internet earlier this year thanks in part to their microtonal, odd-metered take on hard-driving rock, but also because of those ostentatious costumes and masks – black and white polka dot tunics and jumpsuits with oversized papier-mache faces and exaggerated features, originally featuring golden glittery eyes and signature pyramid accoutrements.

The new ones have all those same things but with the added ability to light up in a bright yellow at key moments.

A small detail, to be sure, but one got the sense that the weeknight crowd was reveling in it and many others at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge (LPR) – an appropriately French-named venue given the band’s home province.

Wednesday was the first of the band’s two shows at the 700-capacity basement venue renowned for its sound system and commitment to adventurous programming.

Both Angine shows had been sold out for many months, ever since a video of them playing in a French studio was uploaded to KEXP’s YouTube channel and went viral.

At time of writing, the video is closing in on 20m views – a remarkable tally given that the music, by mass-appeal standards, is so magnificently odd. Continue reading...