Ghislain Poirier - "No Ground Under"

Ghislain Poirier - City Walking (feat. Abdominal) (Ninja Tune 2007)

Ghislain Poirier - No Ground Under / Ninja Tune

Ghislain Poirier, or The Man Who Snuck One in Under Our Collective Noses in '07. Here's a guy who has been turning what people thought they knew about Montreal inside-out for years. He's been consistently flying under the radar despite a host of people championing him in all the right places. 2005's last full-length, the endlessly fascinating Breakupdown, was a sort of meshing of all of Poirier's urban explorations that pre-dates the now-famous Big Bang Paris sound by a year. You could look at it that he knew all the right people and snatched accordingly, but the more likely answer is that he simply knew what he was doing.

If you missed it out in early November last year, the news is that Poirier still knows exactly what's going on in the world around him. A few worldly tours here, a few singles and an EP there to keep himself in the mix, a little trimming of the beard (but only a little), and, er, voilà: Here comes No Ground Under, another twist in the game Poirier has been playing with his own musical education.

In the past, Ghislain has gotten credit both for making some of the most buoyant hip-hop beats in the underground and for providing a transatlantic exception to Montreal's indie-rock rule. I read somewhere - maybe it was the New Yorker article on French provocateur Dieudonné - that there are more and more native French moving to the City of Saints from the City of Lights. Poirier is a native of Canada, but it seemed for awhile that he had been delivering material more suited to Paris Paris than La Sala Rossa.

As this record shows pretty early in the running, Poirier's been dipping his hands into the Caribbean cookie jar and hanging out in places like Le Balattou for inspiration. We've moved beyond IDM-inflected grime rhythms (even though one of the best tracks here, "City Walking," is of this ilk) and into a brave new world of post-modern riddimysticism. Don't laugh. It's better than you think.

"Blazin'," the first proper song on the record, is a take on his trademark sound, thumping bass drums killing your speakers while MC Face T takes to the mic and raving sirens take the party to the streets. As Gordon B. Isnor noted, M.I.A. might have the bigger stage presence, but Poirier has far superior music to back it up. "Blazin'" just happens to be the first example. These alien anthems sound so strange snuggled up next to somebody like Mr. Lee G (unless you'd already heard the vinyl 12 of "Dem Nah Like Me"), but that doesn't make it any less appealing. It's not a cheesy kind of homage, which is the nice thing about it; there are no Soulja Boy steel drums or breezy island sound effects. Mercifully, merci.

Instead, as on the very dark closer "Mangen L'boulé," Poirier runs through the spoken-word chorus and drops Area 51 right over Kingston. The especially low bass contrasts sharply with the flute, Nik Myo's singing, and this wild juxtaposition is another highlight. The idiosyncratic Montreal rap group Omnikrom provide yet another on "Jusqu'en Haut." I haven't bothered with Poirier's solo stuff, but the reason is that no guest stars are needed for this music. It works alone. We just have the bonus of hearing Zulu or Abdominal or whoever happens to pop up on the next song. Each is a comfortably surprising combination of the general aesthetic Ghislain has carried over the years and the newfoundlands of the Tropic of Cancer south. Except for "Exils," which hops a quick plane to India for some disorienting Mumbai beat-konducting before running back to the less crowded beaches of St. Lucia.

The gist, lain, is that No Ground Under is arguably Poirier's finest moment because each song serves the dual function of working for both the 14-song assembly and as a solo venture. Poirier scopes out and executes territory that's gotten awfully crowded since we last saw an album from him. That he does not become lost in the crowd is as much a testament to his talent as any signing to Ninja Tune or Clipse remix could ever be. It's good to hear him again, except... Where have we been?