Mata Zyklek – Why This Song Actually Works | Angine de Poitrine Analysis

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]Welcome to episode two of Inside the Music. Today, we're going to do an in-depth analysis of Mat as I Click by Ange du Poitrine. In my first episode, we analyzed Fab ien by the same band. I was planning on moving on to some other artists, but by popular demand, I decided to do another one of their songs. So, let's dive straight in.

[00:00:44]So, straight away it sounds like a simple 5/4 with a strong accent on beat one of every bar and an eighth note run leading into the repeat.

[00:00:53]4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 [music] 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 Only that's not what it is at all.

[00:01:11]It's actually a trick.

[00:01:13]To fully understand what's going on here, we need to jump ahead and give the next section a listen. Here, the drummer adds a steady eighth note pulse with the pedaled high hat. Finally revealing where the downbeat actually is.

[00:01:27]>> [music] >> 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 [music] 5 1 [singing] 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 This is actually one of my favorite arrangement tricks, and I love it every time I hear it. What's happening is the band's giving a false impression of where the downbeat is. And we don't really hear it until that high hat and ultimately that kick drum come in on section B. What they're actually doing is they're putting the strong accent on the end of beat five of every bar. That first note isn't actually the downbeat at all.

[00:02:02]It's a pickup on the end of beat five of the first bar, which is unusual because usually a pickup leads into the first bar of the pattern, but here the pickup's actually leading into the second bar.

[00:02:12]Essentially, they're playing a four-bar pattern where we only hear the last note of the first pass. The pattern is played once live and then repeated using the looper.

[00:02:21]The drummer doubles the rhythm with tight snare and floor tom shots on each hit. It's important to note that it would be impossible without them hearing a click track in their headphones. In the last bar of the section, at bar eight, the guitarist enters by doubling that chromatic run. They love this trick, and I hear it all throughout their music. Instead of waiting for the beginning of the phrase to introduce a new part, it comes in a little early with a pickup to the next section.

[00:02:47]In the second half of this 16-bar section, the guitar doubles the bass part live two times.

[00:02:53]They still haven't offered any hint of tonality. At this point, we've only heard one note plus that little chromatic run.

[00:03:01]And it's the same note on every layer.

[00:03:03]Section B begins with the guitar and bass parts continuing to repeat via the looper. The drummer adds that eighth-note pulse on the high hat, revealing where the downbeat actually is for the first time. And a new guitar layer is added.

[00:03:17]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> The part has a slight Middle Eastern flavor to it. It features a pull-off from the flat two to the flat seven.

[00:03:50]They're starting to reveal the tonality a note at a time. We now have three notes, G, A flat, and F. But at this point they still haven't given us enough information to know what the full scale is. Like in many of their songs, this guitar part uses an additive concept for the rhythm.

[00:04:06]The structure being 2 + 3 + 2 + 3.

[00:04:10]In other words, 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3.

[00:04:18]The additive rhythmic concept is common in many cultures, especially in Eastern Europe and Middle Eastern music. The concept is to build a rhythm by chaining together smaller groupings of two and three subdivisions. Let's listen to it slowly and count along.

[00:04:40]>> [music] [music] [music] >> The full figure is four bars long and they repeat it twice. The first bar's repeated three times, but bar four has a variation where they play that chromatic run that was introduced earlier.

[00:05:08]The second half of section B is marked by the drummer introducing a steady quarter pulse on the kick drum. In dance music and disco, this is known as a four on the floor pattern. It feels a little weird calling it that here. I guess what we're hearing is a five on the floor pattern. He keeps everything else the same, but ramps up the dynamics a bit by introducing the high hat, the kick, and hitting slightly harder. The guitar part that was introduced earlier continues by the looper, and the guitarist introduces a double, except he plays it an octave lower this time. The combined effect of the additional guitar part, the high hat continuing, the kick drum entering, and everybody hitting slightly harder is that the dynamics ramp up slightly and the intensity builds. At the last bar in bar nine, everything is muted except a gliss on the bass. The point here is to create a dynamic contrast that allows the next section to hit harder. By dropping out multiple layers and then having layers enter all together, you create more impact. This is a key technique in arranging in order to maintain interest. Then, everything re-enters with that chromatic run leading into section C.

[00:06:16]>> [music] [music] [music] >> At the beginning of the section, the live part switches back to the bass, which doubles the guitar part. This creates more rhythmic density and a greater overall intensity. By increased rhythmic density, what I mean is there are more notes squeezed into the same space. The drums also introduce the full kit for the first time. So, this sort of feels like an arrival of sorts. The drummer plays an open hi-hat quarter note pulse as the timekeeper, while the kick and snare essentially accent the guitar and bass parts.

[00:07:09]The rhythmic structure being 1 2 1 2 3 and 1 2 1 2 3 and 1 2 1 2 3 and 1 2 1 2 3 and 1.

[00:07:21]At the end of bar eight, the drummer plays a snare fill, which sets up the repeat.

[00:07:25]For the second half of the section, at the beginning of bar nine, everything continues the same way, but a new bass layer is added.

[00:07:33]This time he plays the same part an octave lower, adding more depth to the part. At bar 15, the live part switches back to the guitar, and you hear what may be an unintentional note before he hits that chromatic pickup at the end of bar 16 leading to the next section. This pickup sounds like a power chord, but it's hard to tell whether he's actually playing a power chord or just a harmony a fifth above.

[00:07:56]Let's give section D a listen.

[00:08:00]>> [music] [music] >> Section D introduces yet another new guitar layer. It's essentially a one-bar loop with a variation at bar four that catches that chromatic pickup, except this time a harmony a fifth above to create a power chord-like effect. Again, the rhythmic structure is 1 2 1 2 3 and 1 2 1 2 3 and. At the last bar, the guitar player triggers a buzzing sound via a pedal. The sound functions as a fill that leads to the next section.

[00:08:51]The drummer keeps the basic pattern the same, but changes the timekeeper to the ride symbol and adds symbol accents to the downbeat of every bar.

[00:08:59]At bar eight, he also adds a snare fill that doubles the rhythm of the chromatic pickup and serves as a fill that leads to the repeat.

[00:09:06]At bar 16, the final bar of the section, he also adds a fast tom fill, which sets up the entrance of the main melody in the following section. Let's give section E a listen.

[00:10:09]>> Section E functions as a chorus and there's a lot to unpack here.

[00:10:13]First, the melody. The main hook is a four-bar phrase in 5/4 and with it they finally reveal the full tonality, which is essentially a microtonal Phrygian dominant in the key of G. In university, I had a professor that referred to the scale as Hijaz and it's common in Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk music. The structure is as follows: one, >> [music] >> flat two, major three, four, five, flat six, [music] flat seven, and one again.

[00:10:44]In Western music, it's actually the fifth mode of harmonic minor and the cool thing about it is it offers you an opportunity to use a Phrygian tonality over a major triad or a dominant seventh chord. Again, >> [music] >> on bar three of each phrase, a vocal says what sounds like the song title, "Mad as I Click". The drummer accents this with an open hi-hat.

[00:11:12]Beat one of the last bar of the melody loop is accented with that buzzing sound triggered by the pedal on each of the first three times through the pattern.

[00:11:21]The interesting thing is it's a different note each time.

[00:11:24]At the ending of the fourth time through the melody, both the drummer and the guitar player play a variation that adds a lot of tension that pulls us into the repeat. They also add in ascending vocal gliss here, which further increases the intensity and functions like a riser in dance music leading into the repeat. At the same moment, the drummer plays a fast tom and snare fill to even further add to the effect. The second major development in this section has to do with the rhythmic feel. The drum part is seriously next level here, and it acts on multiple levels.

[00:11:54]The drummer goes to a 4/4 beat, which creates a grinding tension with the rest of the band because the downbeats don't line up. This is the exact same trick that they used in "Fats Back." It's essentially a five against four polyrhythm that creates a rhythmic displacement between the parts. The bass and guitar continue playing a four-bar pattern in 5/4 for a total of 20 beats.

[00:12:15]But, the trick is the drummer begins playing a five-bar pattern in 4/4, which also totals 20 beats. The result is when the drummer hits the first beat of bar two in his 4/4 pattern, the rest of the band is still on the last beat of the first bar of their pattern. So, when they play the first beat of their pattern, the drummer's now on beat two.

[00:12:36]Basically, the beat turns around, and all of the parts only come together at the end of a full 20-beat cycle. Even though there are two time signatures going on, the true brilliance is that strong backbeat on the snare in the 4/4 pattern is so familiar to us that the audience finds themselves bobbing their heads to it. That's just the beginning, though. What truly makes this part brilliant is the drummer's kick pattern.

[00:13:00]This is not the basic disco four on the floor groove that we heard in "Fats Back." What he's doing here is next level. In much the same way that John Bonham did on many Led Zeppelin songs, the kick is accenting the full rhythm of the guitar even though it's in a different time signature. He catches every little detail, every little syncopation.

[00:13:20]In the first half, he uses the closed hi-hat as his timekeeper.

[00:13:23]Then in the second half, he opens up the hi-hat for a more aggressive sound.

[00:13:27]She also generally hits harder here to add a little more aggression and increase the intensity.

[00:13:33]In the second half, the guitar player also adds a pitchy variation to the melody on the third and fourth bars.

[00:13:39]Then on bars seven and eight, they reintroduce that variation from the previous section in order to add tension and pull toward the repeat. They also change the vocal on the second half.

[00:13:48]This time it's just a bark that accents the first note of that ending variation.

[00:13:53]Then they go on to repeat the entire eight-bar phrase before returning to section D.

[00:13:59]>> [music] [music] >> Section D is basically repeated verbatim, except this time it's only half as long, eight bars instead of 16.

[00:14:18]Now, let's move on to section F and give that a listen.

[00:14:21]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> At the beginning of section F, all layers in the looper are muted except for a single guitar part from section D.

[00:14:53]The live drums and bass play an accent pattern of shots over top of it. The pattern's as follows: On bar one, they accent beat one. On bar two, they accent beat two. On bar three, they accent beat one again. And then on bar four, they play in unison with the looped guitar part. They repeat the pattern four times with slight variations each time. Then on the last time through, the bass plays a long ascending gliss followed by a unison stop and a chromatic pickup leading back to section C.

[00:15:24]>> [music] >> Here we hear an exact repeat of the last eight bars of section C, which ultimately leads back to the chorus, which is exactly the same as what we heard previously with the exception of an extended buzzing sound on the last two bars.

[00:16:15]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Let's give section G a listen.

[00:16:48]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> So, section G has two clear eight-bar halves, which begin with a dramatic breakdown. Here, we hear a steady quarter note pulse on the kick drum, accented in unison with the note G playing the same pulse on the bass. It's a two-bar rhythmic pattern in five, played four times. The pattern's as follows: 1 2 3 4 [music] 5 1 2 3 4 5 and 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 and 1. In the second half, a guitar part's added, but he only accents certain notes, which are doubled with a floor tom hit. On the last time through, the drummer further increases the intensity slightly by adding a high hat hit on those unison shots. So, now we have kick, bass, guitar, and high hat hitting in unison together. For section H, the band goes full Devo. Let's give it a listen.

[00:17:59]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> The guitar player adds a double of the bassline. He plays four bars, and then loops it with the looper.

[00:18:30]On bar eight, he adds a single note that slides downward.

[00:18:34]Sort of a pickup to the next layer coming in.

[00:18:37]The drummer keeps the basic rhythmic figure the same, but introduces a floor tom hit that doubles the bass part. In the second half, beginning at bar nine, the guitar player continues to add that single note at the beginning of every other bar.

[00:18:50]The drummer repeats the same pattern, but adds a small snare fill at the end of the last bar to introduce the next section.

[00:18:57]Let's give section I a listen.

[00:19:08]>> [music] >> The drummer continues that steady quarter note pulse on the kick drum including that five and accent introduced earlier.

[00:19:19]Except now, the snare and high hat become a disco beat. The high hat play steady 16th notes while the snare accents a strong backbeat on two and four. All this is happening while the guitar and bass continue their pattern in five which creates that same grinding tension that we heard earlier. The most important thing that happens here is this fast rhythmic guitar part that's added. It features lots of octave wide jumps which we also heard in Fabien and seems to be a trick that the band loves.

[00:19:48]He's essentially playing a two beat figure four times and then tagging a two beat variation to the end of it. Now, let's listen to section J.

[00:20:03]>> [music] >> The drums continue the same pattern except they increase the intensity by opening the high hat and playing a little bit louder. That fast jumpy guitar part is continued via the looper and the guitar player adds yet another layer. Section K breaks down to just drums and what sounds to me like two layers of that most recently added guitar part from the previous section.

[00:20:32]>> [music] [music] >> The drums cut back to just the quarter note pulse on the kick with fills added on the last two beats of every other bar. Section L.

[00:21:04]>> [music] [music] >> Section L begins with the new guitar part added in a lower register.

[00:21:36]This part is a little more rhythmically busy and adds to the intensity. He then adds a double on the second time through. The drums play an interesting five pattern here. He accents beat one of each bar with an open high hat. In the second half, he then opens the high hat for all hits, increasing the intensity even further.

[00:21:55]Otherwise, the part stays essentially the same, but opening the high hat is enough to increase the overall intensity level significantly. At bar eight, all layers are muted except the live bass, which plays a tremolo gliss with a surfy feel. The section continues for another 16 bars. It's really just a continuation of section L. For the first eight bars, the bass doubles the guitar part in a lower register, giving even further weight. The drums continue the open high hat pattern, except played with a little more intensity and an accent on the symbol that marks the beginning of each phrase. At bars seven and eight, the guitar player introduces a new part, which is a double, except this time an octave higher. He also hits that buzzing sound on beat one of the last bar, which is accompanied by a fast drum fill that leads to the repeat. In the second half of the section, everything continues the same, except the drummer switches from the open high hat to the ride cymbal, which he hits very aggressively to the point where it actually sounds sort of like a crash. This culminates in the last two bars, where the drummer hits the snare along with the crash cymbal on every single beat. This peaks the intensity for the finale, and they end with a unison rhythmic figure ending on the end of beat five which gives the impression that everything is just left hanging and unfinished. So, that's Mat Zo I Click. What we're revealing here is there's a method to Unjen's madness.

[00:23:16]There's certain things that they really love. The first thing they love is additive rhythm. In other words, they love to create complex rhythms by combining groupings of two and three beats or subdivisions. They also love to add a four four polyrhythm on top of it to create this grinding tension between the parts. In other words, the drummer plays in four while the rest of the band plays in some odd time signature. They also tend to stick to four bar phrases which is typical of even the most simple popular music. They love to create dynamics by dropping things out just before the band hits for the next section and they love to introduce a new part on a pickup at the end of the previous section.

[00:23:57]If there's anything I missed, feel free to drop a comment and we'll see you next time.