This Viral Band Sounds Wrong… Until You Hear This

Added: 2026-05-03

[00:00:00]This might be the strangest rock band to go viral in years.

[00:00:04]And once you understand what they're actually doing musically, it gets even weirder.

[00:00:11]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Hello everybody, this is TJ R. Thank you so much for stopping by the channel. And yes, I'm late to this one.

[00:00:35]For the past month, it feels like every music channel on YouTube has been talking about Ange Dépatrie.

[00:00:44]And I just kept scrolling past it. I'd see thumbnails, think, "Well, what is that?" And then move on.

[00:00:50]But now that I've actually sat down and watched them, I get it.

[00:00:54]And I have to admit, this is one of the most uniquely exciting things to happen in rock music in a while.

[00:01:01]So, if you're late to this, too, Ange Dépatrie are a duo out of Quebec.

[00:01:08]And they're kind of like the Matrix.

[00:01:11]You can't really explain them.

[00:01:14]You just have to see them.

[00:01:27]If I had to describe it, it's like rock, funk, metal, prog, psychedelia, with a heavy influence from Eastern music, all colliding at once.

[00:01:39]But the real reason they sound like this comes down to something called microtonality.

[00:01:46]Now, I've seen a lot of channels explain this already, but I want to show you what's actually happening.

[00:01:53]So, let's go to the keyboard.

[00:01:56]All right, so here's the basic idea.

[00:01:59]Western music is built on 12 notes per octave. We call that equal temperament.

[00:02:06]1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12.

[00:02:13]We've got our white keys, we've got our black keys.

[00:02:16]That's it.

[00:02:18]Now, if I play something like an E natural to an F natural, that's a minor second interval. Here's what it sounds like.

[00:02:29]>> [music] >> Let me play it again.

[00:02:34]That's a minor second interval.

[00:02:35]It's a fixed distance and it's locked in.

[00:02:38]But now, let me play that same interval using the pitch bender here.

[00:02:45]>> [music] >> Did you hear that?

[00:02:49]Let's do it again.

[00:02:52]>> [music] >> When I slid up to that F natural, there was a passing tone in between.

[00:03:04]In fact, there might have been more than one.

[00:03:07]That's what we refer to as the microtones.

[00:03:12]So now, imagine if we added extra keys to the keyboard here, so that those microtones were locked in the way this E natural to F natural is locked in. There would be another key right here in between them.

[00:03:30]So, imagine for a moment, instead of 12 notes per octave, we have 24 notes per octave.

[00:03:39]We're going to need a lot more keys.

[00:03:41]And that's the world that this band is working in.

[00:03:46]Now, a quick bit of music history is in order, because this isn't a new idea.

[00:03:51]The terms microtone and microtonal were coined in the early 20th century by musician Maud MacCarthy Mann.

[00:04:00]This was done to avoid the misnomer quarter tone when speaking of the shrutis of Indian music, which is the smallest pitch difference the human ear can detect and perform.

[00:04:14]And once you understand that, everything about their sound starts to click.

[00:04:18]If you look at the custom double-neck instrument Ange Dépatrie is playing, you'll notice something right away.

[00:04:25]It has way more frets than a standard guitar or bass. That instrument is literally built to access those microtones.

[00:04:33]And here's what I think is genius about how he uses it.

[00:04:37]He'll play something on the bass that feels familiar, something grounded in standard Western intervals.

[00:04:45]>> [music] >> And then layer microtonal harmonies on top of it with the guitar. So, your ear has something to latch onto, while at the same time being pulled into something completely unfamiliar.

[00:05:04]That's why people hear this and go, "I've never heard anything like this before."

[00:05:10]Now, he's also clearly using loopers, which lets him build parts in real time, stacking layers, harmonies, and counterlines on top of each other. So, what you're hearing isn't just complexity, it's complexity being built live.

[00:05:27]And then there's the drummer, Collec Dépatrie.

[00:05:31]What's interesting is there's no microtonality happening on his side.

[00:05:36]He's playing a traditional kit in a very non-traditional way. And that actually makes him the secret weapon of this band.

[00:05:45]He's the bridge between what you recognize and what you don't. Because as wild and unpredictable as the guitar work is, he's the one grounding everything, giving it weight, giving it power, and most importantly, making it rock.

[00:06:00]His rhythms act as another anchor to Western music. So, even when everything else starts to drift into these unfamiliar microtonal spaces, you're not completely lost.

[00:06:12]And yes, there's definitely an inability to commit to 4/4 time.

[00:06:17]Spinal Tap reference, ask your parents.

[00:06:20]But in this context, that instability is exactly what makes it work.

[00:06:26]Now, we can't talk about this group without talking about the visuals.

[00:06:30]Because let's be honest, without the costumes and masks, they probably don't go viral like this.

[00:06:37]But that doesn't make it a gimmick.

[00:06:39]Showmanship has always been part of rock. From Paul Revere and the Raiders to Kiss to Devo, this idea isn't new.

[00:06:49]What is smart about it is that the visuals make people stop and say, "What is that?"

[00:06:55]And then they stick around long enough to actually hear the music.

[00:06:59]Visuals are not a gimmick, they're a gateway.

[00:07:04]There's also this almost alien, incomprehensible vocal style on a few of the tracks, especially on volume two.

[00:07:12]And I actually hope they lean even further into that on the next album, because it feels like the next step, or maybe I should say the next illogical step.

[00:07:24]Now, whenever something like this breaks through, you usually get a wave of copycats. But honestly, this is going to be very hard to replicate.

[00:07:33]You might get people copying the look, but the musical side of it, this music takes a very special skill set.

[00:07:42]And musicians who do have that level of ability usually want to carve out their own identity anyways, and are not interested in being copycats.

[00:07:53]And maybe that's the bigger takeaway here. This is music being made by musicians pushing ideas forward, not a committee trying to reverse engineer a hit.

[00:08:04]So, yeah, you might watch this and think, "Well, that was wild, but it's not for me."

[00:08:10]And that's fine.

[00:08:12]But even if you didn't love it, you won't forget it. And right now, that might be the most important thing rock music can be.

[00:08:22]Unforgettable.

[00:08:25]This is TJ R. In a few moments, you will see some links for some other videos that I have created in the past. I hope you will check those out.

[00:08:33]I want to give a big shout-out and thank you to my patron supporters. Patron supporters do get exclusive weekly videos not available on this channel.

[00:08:41]If you would like to be a patron supporter, please go to patreon.com/tjr the original.

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[00:08:56]Everybody, thank you so much for watching, and I'll look forward to seeing you again in the next video. Take care. Bye-bye.

[00:09:06]>> [music] [music] [music] [music]