Ghislain Poirier interview by Simon Hampson

The obsession with bass in music now can seemingly go no further. Whole styles are building their foundations around rhythmic bass lines that stutter and fly around percussive arcs. Bass weight is spoken of in revered tones and it seems to have a psychological effect on listeners.

But if bass seems prominent in some commercial styles of recent times, you only have to dig a slight way underground to find its source. In many circles bass is revered for its body affecting, mind provoking, and sheer foot moving power. Instead of a bed or foundation to articulate a musical style, whole genres have built up around the bassline. As club systems get larger and more expressive, these styles are breaking out and finding new audiences. Enter Montreal native Ghislain Poirier.

Since earlier this decade Poirier has been an alchemist with bass. He has specialised in melting a whole host of styles down, mixing them and producing some of the most addictive bass-heavy riddims around. Poirier brings the world to his listeners in a distinctively Montreal way. It’s local in feel but global in scope. From the soca of Trinidad and Tobago, to ragga from Guadeloupe; Créole rap from Haïti and over to African hip-hop. It’s all there, fighting for position and melding in unpredictable ways.

Poirer’s sixth full length record, No Ground Under, is his first for the Ninja Tune label, a relationship that, he tells me, “Just happened naturally.” On the line from his home in Montreal, he says, “Ninja Tune have an office in Montreal (I signed with the Montreal office, by the way) and we saw each other at gigs and concerts. They liked my stuff and even before I signed with them, they invited me to play at a Ninja Tune party.”

It’s a timely move. Having released two records for Chicago label Chocolate Industries, Ninja Tune feels like the right place for Poirier’s sound and progression. They are well placed to push his music across new boundaries and support him in moving even further around the globe.

No Ground Under is much more urgent than its predecessors. Poirier is succinct about his approach: “I walked around it, looked at it and finally kicked its ass really far. Conclusion : I just wanted to see how it would be with more uptempo riddims.”

And more uptempo they are – having kicked things off with the first single in late 2007. “Blazin’ features Jamaican-born, Montreal-based Face-T who brings the perfect ragga flavour to Poirier’ beats. On the single the original plus the riddim is joined by two slamming remixes by DJ C and The Bug. DJ C brings a typically mobile synth remix and The Bug grimes things up.

Poirier is still adamant that nothing has changed in his approach. “Ideas are still the best plug-ins ever made. And my ears are better instruments now than when I started,” he says. He is reflective on how people see and describe his music (variously as abstract hip-hop). “People can talk as much as they want about naming music. It’s like philosophy, it’s fun to talk about, but nobody has the truth.”

The variety of guest vocalists on No Ground Under is astounding. As if the music itself wasn’ enough of a melting pot, we find Zulu from Chicago doing a ragga track, Omnikron bringing French vibes on their track, Nik Myo singing Creole, Abdominal from Toronto on a more traditional hip-hop vibe, and Face-T setting things on fire on his track.

“I give the MCs a loop without a song structure,” says Poirier about working with different vocalists, “and then they’re free to shape the verses, choruses and bridges however they like. It’s rare that I suggest a theme to the MC, but I do give them some direction in terms of what I want in the vocal delivery, my idea behind the beat and how they can contribute to the track.

“Once I have the vocals, I work a lot on the beat to make it fit perfectly and if the rapper is really hot, I won’t hesitate to make breaks in the track to let them shine. This process requires a lot of trust from the vocalists and so far they’ve always been happily surprised by the result.”

It’s all an interesting result for an artist who started out in the ambient domain. Poirier’ first release was for Taylor Deupree’ respected New York label 12K in 2001. It was actually my first sample of his work, and it was a few years until I heard his beats (when his second record, Breakupdown, came out on Chocolate Industries).

“It was a public change but not a personal change,” he says. “In fact, the first track I was supposed to release, before the 12k album in 2001, was a big fat distorted hip-hop beat, but the compilation that it was included on was never released.

“I’ve always done my beat and ambient stuff at the same time, but I was interested in starting out with a full album of the more ambient stuff. It took a couple of years for me to be satisfied enough with my beats to release them, and Beats as Politics was the first big move in that direction. Now, I’m really into exploring all kinds of riddims at any BPM and the common link is bass.”

Ghislain Poirier’s No Ground Under is available from Ninja Tunes/Inertia.