Ghislain Poirier CD Review
Ghislain Poirier
Breakupdown
(Chocolate Industries)
Former techno maven dives further into hip-hop, college parties on urban campuses.
You could say the preponderance of hip-hop as commercially viable dance music is enough to lure stalwart DJs away from their crafts, because idiosyncrasies are more decipherable and bias against is less widespread. Pinning such theories on Ghislain Poirier, however, is to misread the Montreal DJ entirely. In so much as Slayer is comparable to Metallica, yes, parallels can be drawn between DJ Shadow and Poirier. But his preference tends to be less urban (in the American ghetto sense) and distinctly European, down to the multi-lingual MCs. “Riviére De Diamants” has as much Missy Elliott as “Mic Diplomat” has Sean Paul, but Poirier’s beats have something more academic than soulful in them, removing an intangible.
— Steve Forstneger
