Angine de Poitrine take Vol. II to UK No. 1 as weekly streams jump from 2K to 11M

Angine de Poitrine are a duo from Saguenay, Quebec who play microtonal math rock in oversized papier-mâché masks and have just produced the fastest streaming rise in their genre’s history. Luminate identified them as the year’s first streaming breakout: weekly global on-demand streams went from under 2,000 to 11.2 million in twelve months. Their second album, Vol. II, six tracks and 36 minutes of dense, groove-driven music, now sits at No. 1 on the UK Rock & Metal Albums chart.

The chart run traces back to a KEXP session released earlier this year that accumulated over 14 million views on YouTube. The duo walked into the session in their masks. Khn de Poitrine plays microtonal guitars and occasional vocals; Klek de Poitrine handles percussion. The performance circulated far outside the usual math rock circuit. More than 40 headline dates on their world tour have sold out; their first US run has been expanded twice to meet demand.

Vol. II, released through Spectacles Bonzaï and distributed in the United States by ATO Records, has drawn critical responses the genre rarely attracts. Metacritic aggregates the press consensus at 84 out of 100. Exclaim! gave it a perfect 10, their first in three years. Pitchfork wrote that the duo “managed to take some of the unsexiest music in history and give it the type of groove that renders it undeniable.” The New York Times noted they “perfectly master the power of rhythm, repetition, dissonance, and surprise.” Dave Grohl called them “completely bonkers,” and the band received the GAMIQ Artist of the Year award.

Math rock has not produced commercial chart results like this before. The genre’s most successful acts built cult followings, not chart positions. Vol. II has no singles in the conventional sense; its track titles (‘Mata Zyklek’, ‘Sarniezz’, ‘UTZP’, ‘Yor Zarad’, ‘Angor’, ‘Fabienk’) offer no pop handhold, and the album’s structure resists algorithmic recommendation. The current numbers rest heavily on a single viral event. With 704 Last.fm listeners set against 11.2 million weekly streams, a significant share of that audience arrived by discovery and has not returned for a second listen.

Vol. II is available on vinyl and CD in the United States through ATO Records and in Europe through Republic of Music. The band’s world tour continues through December 2026, with UK headline shows in Leeds, London, and Bristol among the remaining dates; over 40 of those dates are already sold out.

Tags: Québec, Angine de Poitrine, math rock, progressive rock, Vol. II