Quebec鈥檚 newest breakout band wears paper-m芒ch茅 masks with giant phallic noses and polka-dot-speckled costumes that cover their entire bodies. Their music sounds like a freewheeling jam session that wandered out of a dream and crashed into a carnival ride. Their identities are a mystery.
Naturally, the internet can鈥檛 look away.
Meet Angine de Poitrine, a duo from Saguenay, Que., whose performances went viral after Seattle鈥檚 KEXP shared a clip of their meandering math-rock set, full of angular riffs and odd time signatures, in early February. Their show at the Trans Musicales festival in Rennes, France, has racked up more than 2.8 million views, sparking bewildered tweets, reaction videos and fan theories about who 鈥 or what 鈥 might be behind the masks.
Known simply as Klek and Khn de Poitrine, the self-described 鈥渟pace-time voyagers鈥 prefer to remain anonymous. When interviewed on camera, they must wear their whimsical costumes and 鈥渢alk non-human鈥 鈥 via alien grunts and squeals 鈥 their publicist says.
In phone interviews, they use their real voices.聽
鈥淚 won't say we鈥檙e the newest and freshest thing out there, but maybe there is something different about us from the trend right now,鈥 says Klek, who plays drums.聽
鈥淭here's no language, there's no political meaning. It's just two freaking things doing music. And that's pretty much what turns me on. That's what we want to do. We want to keep it that way.鈥
But maintaining that mystery has become harder as their audience rapidly grows.
The duo recently wrapped a sold-out tour in France and are booked through the fall, including three at-capacity nights in Toronto in July.
鈥淲e鈥檙e both trying to get our head out of the water right now,鈥 laughs Klek.聽
The sudden attention has forced the duo to pull back online as their social media accounts are inundated with messages.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a bit of a learning curve on how to manage social media when your band is flooding the internet,鈥 says Khn, who plays a double-necked guitar and performs barefoot, his hands and feet painted white with black dots.聽
Quebec' masked band Angine de Poitrine is shown in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Constantin Monfilliette (Mandatory Credit)
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The online frenzy has also turned some fans into amateur detectives.
鈥淧eople are really working hard to find out who we are,鈥 says Klek, adding that some have been successful.
鈥淚t's giving a vibe of voyeurism that is kind of weird for us. Like, people call us on our personal telephones to talk with us like we're big friends. It's not that we don't like people. We, in fact, really love each and every one of the people.鈥澛
Klek and Khn are brothers 鈥渇or the sake of the concept,鈥 though not in real life. Still, they鈥檝e been playing music together since they were 13, bouncing through several projects 鈥 including as 鈥渢he rhythm section of a stoner rock band.鈥
鈥淚 may have spent more time with Khn than my sister,鈥 laughs Klek.
Angine de Poitrine began as a gag in 2019, when the pair were booked to play the same Saguenay venue twice in one week and worried nobody would attend the second time. Their solution: show up in wacky getups.
鈥淚t was a bit of an Andy Kaufman-esque joke to play on people we knew personally 鈥 to throw a new musical proposition out there and try to fool them into thinking it鈥檚 not us,鈥 recalls Khn.
鈥淲e found it quite funny, so we just kept it going on.鈥
After a pandemic-era lull spent working construction as music venues shuttered, the duo returned to the project 鈥減edal to the metal.鈥 Their debut album, 鈥淰ol. 1,鈥 arrived in 2024, with 鈥淰ol. 2鈥 due April 3.
Angine de Poitrine has since enjoyed a surge of local momentum, turning heads at festivals including Pop Montreal, and being named 2025鈥檚 artist of the year at the Gala alternatif de la musique ind茅pendante du Qu茅bec.
The band鈥檚 name 鈥 which translates to angina pectoris, a medical term for chest pain 鈥 reflects their sound: a heady, throbbing rush that rattles the heart, thrilling and alarming at once.
Khn plays a custom double-necked guitar-bass built to perform microtones 鈥 the notes between notes in standard western scales.
They鈥檝e long been fascinated by Turkish, Japanese and Middle Eastern music for their use of microtonal intervals, and were further inspired by prog band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard鈥檚 2017 album 鈥淔lying Microtonal Banana,鈥 which explored the sound in a rock context.聽
鈥淲hat better way to give yourself a challenge?鈥 Khn posits.
鈥淟ike, 鈥極h, I'm having a lot of fun with 12 notes. Why don't you work with 24 now and see where it can go?鈥"
Quebec' masked band Angine de Poitrine is shown in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Constantin Monfilliette (Mandatory Credit)
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He adds their goal is to experiment with the musical language through a 鈥渕ore modal, modern, jazz-rock approach.鈥澛
On songs like 鈥淪arniezz,鈥 off 鈥淰ol. 2,鈥 Khn plays a groovy bass line and layers dissonant, serpentine guitar riffs over it with a loop pedal until the song explodes into a frenetically paced, delirious swirl.
Though they may look like an overnight success, the pair says they spent two decades cycling through styles 鈥 from rock to hip-hop and beyond 鈥 before stumbling onto the peculiar chemistry of Angine de Poitrine.
鈥淲hen you鈥檝e been doing this for 20 years and trying a lot of different things,鈥 Klek says, 鈥渁t some point you鈥檙e bound to put something out there that鈥檚 going to speak to a larger audience.鈥
The masks might help, too.
鈥淪ometimes I joke around and say we鈥檙e good clickbait,鈥 Khn laughs.
鈥淏ut if once people have clicked, they're satisfied with the thing musically speaking 鈥 well, good for us and good for them.鈥
This report by 国产诱惑福利 was first published March 13, 2026.
