by Dean Wolfe, prog dog media. Album released 2026.
If you’ve been living under a rock lately, prepare yourself. Vol. II by ADP is a brain-stunner of an album that hits you like that soccer ball you never saw coming.
Angine De Poitrine, it seems, are the “chosen ones” to bring lively, fun, quirky, challenging, and audacious instrumental rock to a nutrition-deprived audience. It’s all delivered with snappy drums, a double-neck instrument combining bass and six-string guitar (with twice the usual number of frets), and a complex looper rig demanding speedy, barefooted coordination and precision.
The mania is spreading ever wider since the duo’s live KEXP performance on YouTube (13 million views as of this writing). This burst of popularity suggests a genuine thirst among listeners for something different—if not outright unhinged—compared to the usual mainstream churn of predictable or overly processed schlock, not to mention an endless stream of replayed classic hits of yesteryear, and yester-century.
Has the dam broken? Is Angine De Poitrine the long-overdue wrench in the machine that prophets have foreseen and forewarned us about? Is a massive world-wide musical reboot about to be triggered?
I knew this would be a hard album to review, because Vol. II by Angine De Poitrine isn’t just a unique record. This papier-mâché-clad Québécois duo is fast becoming a heavily scrutinized, impossible-to-ignore cultural phenomenon.
Many longtime prog fans count themselves among Angine De Poitrine’s new devotees, hyping the pyramid hand signals in YouTube comments—and probably in real life too. Some even claim the duo as “one of their own.” But is it really progressive rock?
Rather than belabour genre labels, it’s probably easier to accept a few things. Plenty of prog fans love this band, and math rock, while it came later, digs into the same kind of rhythmic complexity. And yet it’s still its own thing—related to prog, but not quite the same. Clear as mud.
What does the duo say about their own music? I discovered a very recent interview on Youtube entirely in French. In their own words (translated and with a bit of paraphrasing):
"[Angine De Poitrine] is first of all a duo... rock with a bit of an electro flavour, meaning the music is constructed and built on loops. There's a certain repetitiveness but always with an intentional build-up to bring in the next phase or a more developed riff etc.
"The tunes keeps moving forward, and don't stagnate.... but they have a kind of repetitiveness that reminds you of techno... In terms of timbre it's anchored in a very instrumental rock tradition- a bit left field overall. Super danceable."
They say that got into microtonality simply through curiosity and were...
"interested in ever increasing complexity ...the notion of a challenge is always attractive. ...it started with a fascination with eastern music...but we didn't want to copy it - we used it in a way that was more our own...our own flavour...made sure it wasn't just a pastiche of what's done in the East. We make it very 'Seguanay-an'...(they are from Seguanay Quebec)"
So, they are making use of microtonality in a way they were comfortable with and in a way they enjoy--attracted by the closeness of the notes, the friction, the timbre, and the novelty as well.
Listening to Vol. II, I feel reassured they’re here to stay. This doesn’t strike me as a flash in the pan. They did refer to ADP as a “project” in an interview, which suggests they’ll stick with it only as long as it continues to challenge and intrigue them—but on this album, their artistic integrity feels intact. The music is genuinely strong, and it sticks—more like cast iron than Teflon. And how can you not love “UTZP,” with its munchkin-scaled, Led Zeppelin-ish flair?
The album feels a tad on the short side, but there’s that old saying: “leave ’em wanting more.” There’s good variety across the tracks, even veering a bit country on the opener to side two, keeping things consistently interesting as one piece flows into the next.
There’s a deliberate otherworldliness to the album, mainly in the occasional vibey vocals—like Sesame Street aliens singing from another planet—and in lead guitar lines soaked in wild, unpredictable effects.
The bass tones really rock out, reminding me of Chris Squire on The Yes Album, with aggressive pick use and plenty of lines up high on the fretboard. This album is fun and fresh. ADP pull the tablecloth out from under the listener’s dinner plates before they even realize what’s happened. There are generous splatterings of funk, disco, rock, and jazz fusion, plus an armada of catchy riffs—cleverly making use of, quite literally, the notes between the notes.
The drumming is also highly satisfying. Klek is, quite literally and figuratively, half of the band’s sound—and together with Khn, they are far more than the sum of their parts. Hearing them play together, it’s not surprising to learn they’ve been jamming since they were young teenagers.
I give this ingenious and highly listenable album 5 out of 5 prog dog bones. Do yourself a favour—pull up a chair and let these Quebecois masters of microtonal riffs pepper your brain with polka dots. You won't know what hit you. Guaranteed fun for the whole family.
