Angine de Poitrine: What You Need To Know About The Newest Masked Duo To Hit Stardom

Masked musicians are nothing new to pop culture; between Daft Punk, Deadmau5, Marshmallow, and countless other DJs, we have accepted it as a sort of sub-genre of electronic/pop music, adding a fun element and usually a secretive/hidden identity puzzle for fans to explore. Angine de Poitrine adds to this zeitgeist and subtly redefines it by adding experimental alt-rock to the list of possible genres for a masked creative to succeed in.

And boy, are they experimental.

Appealing primarily to musicians and avid jazz heads, Angine focuses heavily on making as complex a song structure as possible, implementing at times a dizzying amount of time signature changes, atonal melodies, and ever-evolving riffs. While I would describe all of their tracks as instrumental, they do have the occasional vocal inclusion usually in the form of a short gang-vocal chorus, shout, “oh yeah!”, or hoorah. What grounds the chaos is their simplistic instrumentation choice, usually limited to bass, guitar, and drums. They are only a duo after all. In the midst of perhaps a sound that only a music nerd could appreciate, there are some very groovy and digestible riffs that any rock fan could get behind and nod along to. After all, these are songs made to truly rock, not just designed for a technical proof of concept.

Back in February of this year, the group gained extreme notoriety when they performed in a recorded KEXP session that was later posted to YouTube. By chance, they had already begun the recording and mixing of and nearly finalized the release of their second EP/LP Vol. II, which was released on April 3rd, 2026. Given the name Vol. II, it is easy to assume this would fall under the mixtape category, but with such a defined and locked-down sound, this record comes across as anything but. At only six songs but 36 minutes, each song covers a lot of ground and multiple ideas; even still, they all lead well into each other while still keeping to themselves in unique ways that re-explore the band’s main ideas in different contexts.

Track one, Fabienk, may start off with an almost distasteful hook between the tone and microtonality of it all, but by the time the full instrumentation comes in only seconds later, you can already see the vision. Then, 1:30 into the album, one of the most straightforward grooves appears from nowhere and pulls you in, perhaps whispering to not run away just yet, it’ll be alright, just try to enjoy the ride. The rest of the tracks explore much of the same, but when the duo is so unique to begin with, this isn’t a bad thing in the slightest.

Writing can only convey so much about this standout group. If you are a fan of other jam bands or western groups inspired by the eastern microtonal scales, such as King Gizzard, be sure to give this group a listen here.