Montreal native Ghislain
Poirier is used to having a full plate. A visual artist and former
college radio DJ, Ghislain left the booth after five years to focus
on producing music.
His first release, “Il N’y A Pas de Sud,” was
released in 2001 on 12k Records. Composing the album in parts, Ghislain
combined elements of ambient music with sparse beats to create a
new, fresh sound. After having spent just one year away from the
station, Ghislain’s debut received international praise from
critics. He answered by releasing his second album, “Sous
Le Manguier,” in 2002 on Montreal’s Intr_version.
Increasingly becoming intrigued by hip-hop, Ghislain began collaborating
with French and Canadian MCs during live shows. His music began
to combine hip-hop and Ragga-influenced beats with the minimalist
bounce of his past. Ghislain’s third release, 2003’s
“Beats as Politics,” would be released on Chocolate
Industries. The album features Sèba and Diverse, each extolling
the importance of the personal and the political in their rhymes.
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These elements, when combined
with his production, listeners would be hard-pressed not to take
to the streets, unified by sound. Another album, “Conflits,”
would appear on Intr_version later that year; in the meanwhile,
Ghislain would remix artists as varied as Pulseprogramming, Les
Georges Leningrad, and DJ/rupture.
Essentially foreshadowing his next act, Ghislain would collaborate
with Anti-Pop Consortium alum Beans for one of the year’s
best hip-hop releases, “Cold As Hell.” This year finds
Ghislain releasing more thoughtful, introspective compositions alongside
disjointed bangers on “Breakupdown.”
Definitely worth the wait.
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