Angine de Poitrine are arguably the breakout band of 2026. Since their otherworldly KEXP session went viral, guitarist Khn de Poitrine and drummer Klek de Poitrine have set the guitar world into a microtonal-guitar-meets-prog-rock frenzy.
The mavericks have now gained the support of fellow Canadians and prog legends Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee, who have recently spoken about the Québécois phenomenon.
“Well, I think they’re fantastic,” Lee told Chile’s Radio Futuro in a recent interview. “I love the fact that they’ve gone viral, because they’re so unusual, peculiar, idiosyncratic.
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“It’s a sound that no-one’s heard before. They’ve taken Primus and a bit of Rush and all the complexities and sort of boiled it down to a two-piece band using an incredible array of technology.”
Lee went as far as to say that Angine de Poitrine’s repertoire is the “most entertaining and exhilarating bits of music that I’ve heard for a long, long time.
“And I think most people that hear them find it somehow infectious, and I don’t mean that like it’s poisonous. I mean good infectious.”
Lifeson also chipped in, calling their arrangements and songwriting “hypnotic.
“You know, using the looping pedals to create a bassline, and then guitar lines over it, and keep building on it,” he pointed out.
“And above all, they’re just great players. They really play their instruments so well, and that whole microtonal approach just makes it sound so exotic, and just mesmerizing.”
“And the drummer has a bigger nose than me, so I love it,” Lee quipped.
Other recent Angine de Poitrine disciples include Animals as Leaders’ Tosin Abasi, who recently had the privilege of wielding Khn’s microtonal double-neck guitar/bass, as documented by Willow Smith.
The two guitarists recently attended an Angine de Poitrine gig, and Abasi couldn’t help but lay his hands on what’s already proving to be quite the legendary guitar.
As for the rest of us, well, it seems like a signature may or may not be in the works – at least according to CEO Simon Godin.
“I’m speaking with their team,” he told Guitar World. “It’s not a yes or a no. Everything went very big, very fast, and now this is the instrument they’ve dreamed of.
“Maybe this is why, for now, they want to keep it unique. If we do make a signature version, it won’t be a big production. It will be more of a collectible item that you hang on your wall.”
