On Angine de Poitrine
Anything popular (or populist) requires a natural piquancy and resonance. Once that starts to fall apart, so does the cult. Take a popular band, like Angine de Poitrine is at the moment: Once they start to deviate from what the fans expect, they might start to fade out.
It will be interesting to follow their creative path. If they follow Bowie's Ziggy path, the character will die in 18 months.
Perhaps there's a difference between a theatrical character and shadowy, anonymous characters, and they can get more mileage out of them. If you look at the ubiquitous costumes as a uniform, they're just doing a job. Of course, there is the power of a uniform on character, like a police uniform or construction helmet and boots, but they're not masks (typically). Masks give you powers you wouldn't normally have, but you don't possess those powers yourself.
As to the music, I see it as kind of a dada or 'pataphysical thing, and it's interesting from that respect, but its roots seem to be shallow in terms of influences. (Somehow I heard an Adrian Belew solo against it circa 1980--so it's not that new). It's not microtonal music per se, just because they are using a mictotonal guitar and bass, and I didn't see that they were influenced by Harry Partch. I was a bit taken aback by that. Then I thought this isn't supposed to be academic or esoteric, but I can see them doing a Barstow. Now, budding musicians will all want microtonal (or fretless) guitars.
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