New Music: Ellen Allien, Ghislain Poirier

Ellen Allien - The Other Side: Berlin / Deaf, Dumb, & Blind (2007)

Ricardo Villalobos - Ichso / Cadenza (2005)

Gotta thank Timeout for educating my dumb hick ass about faraway places. Working with Deaf, Dumb + Blind Recordings, the international "go here, and do this" city guide has been bundling info packs of local culture and secret hotspots. Each CD/DVD combo includes an in-depth local tourism guide and a mix put together by an artist representing their city. Past installments have featured Fischerspooner, Black Strobe, and Damian Lazarus repping NYC, Paris, and London, respectively. Now we turn our sights to Berlin, a place I may never see in my life but now I've got this little nugget of culture to pique my interest and soon I will commence searching for impossibly cheap plane tix.

This edition of The Other Side is mixed by Berlin's own stadtkind, Ellen Allien. I've always been interested in how her sound walks a delicate line between packing clubs and invading bedrooms. Sometimes she's more dance-minded and at others interested in creating intimate, reflective electro pop. The only downfall of that is people expecting either end of the spectrum are often disappointed. Whether its the dark, churning style of Thrills or the twinkling, horizontal masterpieces on Orchestra Of Bubbles, you've got to be ready to just go with it. In her music and particularly her mixes, Ellen Allien occupies a unique place in the electronic music spectrum, reimagining club space as something more than simply a place to go dance.

Appropriately enough, EA chooses to begin her mix with David Bowie's "Heroes" sung in passionate German. Its a nice way to put a uniquely German spin on things and set the tone for everything that follows. Its a classy touch to include many artists currently operating out of Berlin, that means more recent ascendents like Booka Shade and Ricardo Villalobos in addition to some old-school gods such as Plastikman and Monolake. All these guys together in a set seems a bit too obvious for most in the know but a real-life pairing all these big names together could happen on any given night in Berlin, such is the wealth of options open to electronica fans in the city. I've gotta really applaud the inclusion of Monolake's "Invisible", a playlist favorite of mine for a minute now. This track is all cold metal, giving off creepy dystopian vibes; it'd be a proper soundtrack for a remake of Logan's Run. Villalobos's "Ichso" is another older track culled from Achso, released on Cadenza in 2005. Smartly placed near the end of the mix, its nine minutes of amazing track-building skills, further proof that Villalobos is some higher form of being.

This is another solid release from Ellen Allien. Her aural tour of Berlin is darkly serene kinda like the waining moments before a solar eclipse, beautiful to behold but foreboding all the same. The track selection is choice, pushing the fact that Berlin is the current heartbeat of electronic music. Listen. Start saving now. Or if you're near to Berlin, just go. This "soundtrack to a city" coupled with the included DVD showing these awe-inspiring temples of electronica worship, it all looks like a killer time so everyone please remember that you gotta give it up if you wanna live it up. Get out there and get at it.





Ghislian Poirier - What It Look Like (Ghislain Poirier remix) (self-released 2007)

Ghislain Poirier - Bounce Le Remix 2 / self-released

I first ran across Ghislain Poirier about two years ago, around the time he released the criminally slept-on Breakupdown. I was heavy into The Fader and Turntable Lab, annoying all my friends by bumping TTC or Young Jeezy everytime we hung out. I've stopped wearing bandanas and for the record I never spent $150 on a single atrocious streetwear hoodie, but unlike some stuff from that era Mr. Poirier has retained a place in my heart.

Falling somewhere between Prefuse 73 and Diplo, Poirier has stamped his name in diamond-plated chrome all over the Montreal scene with the legendary Bounce Le Gros monthly, a night fusing rap, ragga, grime, and other diasporic musical styles. But far from some Hollertronix-influence ripoff, Poirier's solo work gives a nod towards skeletal instrumental hiphop, the kinda beats that don't sound like being rhymed over until someone like Omnikrom or Mr. Lee G spits hot fire all over the track.

So here we have Bounce Le Remix 2 and its vintage Poirier, right out of the box smelling like a pair of new sneaks. Theres a definite clash of "high" and "low" culture here, so if you can't stomach Ciara because its "commercial" then I suggest you turn back now. But I have faith in you, loyal Audiversity reader, and your spirit of adventure, otherwise you wouldn't be here right? So, yeah, Ciara sings her smash hit "Oh" over the tightest leadpipe beat ever, and Poirier decided to keep Luda's verse because if you wanna go platinum you know who to g-g-g-get with. Clipse is parachuted into the world's largest lazertag arena, making for some unstoppable headnod medicine. Busta Rhymes's banger, "Touch It", gets similar treatment with menacing synth spliced with the original's untouchable drums of death. Spank Rock gets two remixes, both of which are the strongest tracks here, totally disproving my usual maxim about mash-ups that two rights always make a wrong. "What It Look Like" gets laid over Daft Punk's "Da Funk" resulting in an electro-rap burner sure to kill any sweaty house party, and "Bump" hops on a bouyant ESG bassline making for a real fun ride.

This collection of remixes is all about Poirier flexing his theoretical music, showing how to properly crash thru different barriers, how to create a passage for seemingly opposing forces like mainstream v. commercial, hiphop v. electro can grasp hands in brotherhood. Or better yet, they've always existed as paper constructs, silent weapons employed by the man just to keep a good thing down.