No longer an underground secret to Montreal, Ghislain Poirier is on the global production map. Not only does he know how to drop some of the illest beats dub / glitch hop / crunk / soca / grime beats, he is a production force to be taken seriously.
Prior production includes work for labels; Institubes, Intr_version, 12k, Scape and Resofantom.
His 2003 and 2005 albums, 'Beats and Politics' and ‘Breakupdown’ on Chocolate Industries helped break the mold and his latest outing,
No Ground Under(ZEN138CD), was snatched up by none other than Ninja Tune and is setting a new standard for wompy, bassline bounce driven tracks.
The popularity of midtempo and also what many breakbeat fans would call half-time (ala dubstep tempo) tracks is booming and somehow I feel we have barely scratched the surface. Albums like
No Ground Under, the forthcoming Freq Nasty album, 'The Missing Channel' and the work that Switch and Freq Nasty have done with Santogold, are taking this interpretation of dance music to a level not yet defined.
This 'new' use of bassline driven urban beats without rigid genre boundaries is only about to bloom.
Add to all that the rapid growth of the US west coast "Glitch Hop" phenomenon with artists like 'Kraddy' and large electronic labels like BPitch Control (Berlin based) with producers 'Modeselektor' and 'Apparat' and some labels like 'Colony' in the UK and of course Ninja Tune, who've quietly been plugging away for years at fusing Hip Hop beats with IDM and the electronic music scene's dance-floor vibes, all embracing more sound design elements in dubstep, midtempo breaks, soca and bassline house.
The future looks very bright for those who like basslines to bounce to.
For a sampling of what the future holds, check out the mix that Ghislain Poirier very generously put on his website featuring samplings of his latest album,
No Ground Under:
MP3:> Ghislain Poirier : “Bastard Bass”
http://www.zshare.net/audio/6265785991fc7e/
1. “No More Blood” [ft. Face-T]
2. “Road Ride Riddim”
3. “East Montreal Riddim”
4. “Propaganda Riddim”
5. “Exils” [ft. Abdelhak Rahal]
6. “Dizzee Rascal: “Fix Up, Look Sharp (G. Poirier Remix)”
7. “City Walking” [ft. Abdominal]
8. “Hit & Red”
9. “La Ronde”
10. “One Hand Can’t Clap”
11. “Bounce-moi”
12. “Robe Riddim”
13. “Ladies & Gentleman” [ft. Ambitieux, DJ Netik]
14. “DJ C / Zulu: “Darling (G. Poirier Remix)”
15. “Go Ballistic” [ft. Zulu]
16. “Outkast Riddim (G. Poirier Refix)”
17. “Blazin (DJ C Remix)” [ft. Face-T]
18. “Blazin” [ft. Face-T]
19. “Pampa Pimp”
20. “Mangnen l’boulé” [ft. Nik Myo]
21. “ESG Riddim (Ghislain Poirier Refix)”
22. “Diaspora”
23. “Bunji Garlin & JMC Triveni: “Doi Festival (G. Poirier Remix)”
24. “Jusqu’en haut” [ft. Omnikrom]
25. “Lil Wayne: “Dopeman [ft. Birdman] (G. Poirier Remix)”
26. “Pour te réchauffer” [ft. TTC, Omnikrom]
27. “Close The News”
