Yesterday, I stumbled across this duo, Angine de Poitrine, and they scrambled my brain. I was listening to this weird microtonal math rock played by a couple of people in goofy polka dot costumes. Canadians are a strange people.
Just look at the frets on this guy’s bass. It took a while for my nervous system to rewire itself to recognize this as music, but then I couldn’t listen to anything else for a while.
I hate it. I’ve tried several times and it just doesn’t get any better for me. I find the sounds irritating and I despise loopers in general because of the resulting repetition. Are they talented? Sure. Do I think what they do sucks? Absolutely.
Opinons…assholes, etc., etc.
It’s probably not what I’d choose to sit and listen to very much, but I absolutely love that they’re so aggressively weird. In these days of mass-manufactured mediocrity and thoroughly bland extruded corporate entertainment product, it’s great to see people doing stuff that’s really not like anything else.
I feel like I ought to hate it, but it’s the repetition with surprises that appeals.
Sounds interesting.
They’re on Bandcamp: https://anginedepoitrine.bandcamp.com/album/vol-1
Canadian Devo?
When someone says “X are a strange people” they usually mean Japan. And I get the Devo reference.
Canadian Primus?
I discovered them a while ago, through a Guardian interview with the two band members. I listened to the two albums they have released so far and now I can’t listen to more than one or two tracks at a time. It’s nice in a playlist with (for instance) Magma and the like, though.
Halfway through, his fingers are bleeding, the blood running down his wrist. That’s dedication.
I’m a “classical” person myself and I’m comfortable up to Messiaen or Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. I don’t like Stockhausen or Boulez or Cage but wouldn’t criticize those who do like them.
BTW Slominsky’s Lexicon of Musical Invective is amusing for attacks on composers from Beethoven onwards.
If you find something too out there to call music you can just call it sound art. Someday I really should get around to listening to this, as my musical interests go all over the place. For example the other day I went on YouTube to find out what the Carlton Showband, a group of mainly Irish immigrants that were active in Canada between the late ’60s and late ’80s, sounded like. (They were the house band of The Pig and Whistle, a popular Canadian music show set in an English pub.) Last night I listened to the new single from South Korean idol group Aespa.
Only listened to about 2 1/2 minutes before I felt compelled to comment. I like the weirdness and got the vibe that this would go well with an Earthbound-inspired game for boss music or something. I’ll check out the whole thing later.
People, this guy thinks spiders are cool.
The AI machine says
Uh huh.
Hey, that’s pretty catchy!
Tonally and visually shades of The Residents.
I’ll try to watch all of it later but at the beginning the bass looks normal to me except the top half is a guitar.
Gotta love those loopers.
Charles Cornell Studios:
“This Is Why Your Brain Loves Angine de Poitrine”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=hk4q1KR6-Ts
Dunno about ‘microtonal math rock’, they’re just bloody amazing. The last track was the best, for me. Might add them to my workout rotation.
I enjoyed that. It was nice to see the KEXP logo. My middle daughter has a weekly show on KEXP called Astral Plane. She plays psychedelic music from the 60s to present day.
I love it. Like old school techno ambient chill, it sounded wrong at first and then strangely off but right and beautiful.
“math rock” “It took a while … to recognize this as music” “I hate it. …. I find the sounds irritating”
I … don’t think I understand. To me it was just… people playing drums and guitar. Benign and acceptably banal but just music much like I’ve heard elsewhere in backgrounds.
The goofy costumes and backdrop is a hoot though.
Did anyone else get “Pyramid Head” (Silent Hill) vibes from this? I know the headpiece isn’t technically pyramid shaped, but the sharp angles made me think of that.
Regarding the frets on both the guitar and bass necks: The majority (lower pitches) is microtonal using 1/4 steps (i.e., 24 steps per octave instead of the usual 12). The frets become too close together for effective playability at the higher registers so the spacing reverts back to normal 1/2 steps.
I first heard of them about a month or two back. Yes, I am also reminded of The Residents, but not Devo. I would listen to this any day over show tunes or the dreck that spews forth from most radio stations. Not crazy about the “sheet over the drums” as it makes everything so dead, and too bad that people have to resort to odd costumery in order to get a little attention.
Some of you may enjoy the following from Animals As Leaders, complete with custom extended range guitars/basses with fanned frets:
Ladytron has not quite the weird vibe, but they like odd, arty videos to the odd music. “Ghost” appeared often in games of the 2010 period.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=9yaEwcmrR4Q
Good weirdness. Ladytron were far too ahead of their times.
“Destroy Everything You Touch” .https://youtube.com/watch?v=J2MdJKYsapg
David Bowie – Ashes To Ashes.
I cannot put my finger on what it is, but this weirdness is wonderful.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=HyMm4rJemtI
Human behaviour. Nuff said.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=p0mRIhK9seg
I like it. The quarter tones make it fresh, but the other elements are conventional, so it’s accessible and catchy. I’d rather watch them play without the costumes. Good to listen to while I demo the old deck in my backyard.
PZ @7: Yeah, Primus is what I thought of as well.
@20 Loree “I enjoyed that. It was nice to see the KEXP logo. My middle daughter has a weekly show on KEXP called Astral Plane. She plays psychedelic music from the 60s to present day.”
I love KEXP and that show! Found so much great music there. And Jewel is an awesome host!
For the video, I like it, sounds a bit like the love-child of King Gizzards Flying Microtonal Banana and the Black Keys.
It reminds me of Beanfield’s “15 & 8” (2004) and FC Kahuna’s Hayling (2002)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1QkpGMN_C4&list=RDG1QkpGMN_C4 which has beautiful lyrics too “Don’t think about all those things you fear, just be glad to me here”
I thought it was really funny. I do believe though that Saint-Saëns would have wanted to put it next to the cubist pictures (which, coincidentally, the band wouldn’t seem to necessarily disagree with).
Also, what’s with the Yin and Yang reference?
Given the many points (and the obvious comparison to the obvious movie), I’d like to add that I did not see any patterns that necessitated leaving out considerable amounts of detail.
they are clearly talented musicians. if only they used their talent for something other than this.
Cf Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield
Pleasantly weird, yes. But Rush used double-neck guitars since the 70s I believe. And this whole thing feels a bit prog-rock, except that I think this is still a regular 4/4 time signature and, well, it’s short.
I’m surprised that bands like MoeTar (shock, gasp, Americans! They can be weirdly original too) largely flew under the Internet radar. No, they’re not wearing funny costumes, but I’ve hardly heard anything more exciting and weird than they produced. Key and time-signatures everywhere, sometimes mid-lyric, why not. Several times in a sentence, sure.
This piece totally blew my fuses:
Also, they have an epic sounding anti-religious song, one of my favorites:
They’re all talented musicians who push boundaries of pop music. Their singer stands out, she’s awesome. Too bad the band was short-lived.
Not sure why that last one didn’t work, but it’s MoeTar with the song called Screed.
I love it. For once the new hotness isn’t manufactured pablum, but something fresh and weird. Happy that their popularity is breaking the Internet even if I wasn’t able to get tickets to their show in my town.
I saw them a few weeks ago was sent a link. Yes the do seem to know what they are doing and do it well.
They just do not do it for me, costumes and all. I like a wide selection of music modern to traditional, Shirley Horn to Frank Zappa, Skip James to Giacomo Puccini to Philip Glass to John Coltrane it is a personal taste.
Is it some kind of theater like Eugène Ionesco?
Apparently the intricacy extends to this: at some points the guitar player, with his live sound temporarily disconnected, is recording loops to activate later in the piece (using his feet of course), without the benefit of hearing of what he is recording.
Make sure to read the YouTube comments, so much joy!
That (unusual music + comments) reminded me of this old gem: Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists