This is Art

This is art

Life seems to me a wonderful combination of the serious and the ridiculous. The best of art captures this fascinating contradiction. When an artist can show important thoughtful truths while having fun, they achieve something special.

Recently I’ve been watching and listening to a band called Angine de Potrine. Their name translates to angina pectoris or chest pain. Just their name suggests that these guys are not taking themselves too seriously.

Seeing Angine de Potrine is an important part of the experience of their music. This is two guys from rural northern Quebec who wear ridiculous costumes with papier mache masks featuring oversized noses. Their clothes are adorned with black and white polka dots, and they play in front of a backdrop of the same design.

To complete the strange visual spectacle, the drummer’s drums are draped in polka dot cloths, and the guitarist plays a double necked instrument with a combined guitar and bass that both have too many frets.

Most people’s first reaction to the band is that these guys are a couple of clowns who can’t be much more than an inane novelty act.

When they start to play, all assumptions of their silliness fall away. It soon becomes apparent that the members of Angine de Potrine are serious, talented musicians.

The reason there are too many frets on the guitarist’s instrument is that he is playing microtonal music. In normal western music there are twelve tones in an octave. Because of the extra frets, this music has twenty tones in an octave. That means there are notes that won’t sound normal to a western ear.

When microtonal music is done poorly it sounds cacophonous but done well it is fascinating. Angine de Potrine takes advantage of the extra sounds to create music that is strange but very listenable.

Playing microtonal music well is difficult, but this band adds the challenge of playing with a looper. Loopers are pedals that record sections of music and then play them back. A musician using a looper will layers sounds they have recorded with more and more parts. Ed Sheeran is an example of someone who makes effective use of a looper.

As well as playing microtonal music with a looper, Angine de Potrine plays in odd time signatures. With most popular western music, we can count to three or four with the beat. These numbers are comfortable to listen and dance to. When the music is to five, seven or nine beats, clapping along or dancing is a challenge. This band not only plays in strange time signatures, but they change the beat throughout songs. Doing this with a looper takes incredible skill.

With all this strange and complex technique, Angine de Potrine somehow makes music that draws people in and makes them dance. This band is getting millions of views on the internet and has been booked to play major venues across North America.

When these two talented musicians from Saguenay put on masks and started playing complicated music, there is no way that they could have dreamt of the success they are having. It seems clear to me that these two guys started out having fun and not worrying too much about what anyone thought of their act.

This is how art should work. Whether we are playing music, painting or writing books, artists should do what they love doing and work hard at doing it well. Sometimes the world unfolds properly and artists producing this kind of wonderful art will be recognized.

I would recommend Angine de Potrine to anyone. Their music is fascinating and should inspire anyone who makes art.