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Written by Aaron Richter Wednesday, 25 January 2006 13:20

In a sense, Poirier has first built the standard wall—to show he can—only to tear it down and reconstruct the pieces into a levitating super-wall that can read minds, predict the future, and cure cancer.

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We love Montreal because it gave us the Arcade Fire. And William Shatner. But while we’re thanking our lucky maple leaves for Star Trek reruns on the Sci-Fi Channel and one of the best damn rock albums to hit shelves since Kid A, the second largest city in Canada is sneaking up on hip-hop with Montreal native Ghislain Poirier, whose fantastic fourth album, Breakupdown, displays a production talent that stretches simple structures into abstract creations. In fact, we’ve been hitting the “repeat” button on these neck-snapping bangers so much that Captain Kirk is feeling a bit neglected. But that’s OK—Boston Legal kind of sucks, and some of those Arcade Fire dudes aren’t even Canadian.

Coming up as a visual artists and radio DJ, Poirier began his work as a producer by creating experimental compositions that thrived in subtle, ambient tones and has since moved gradually toward hip-hop thanks to his live collaboration with MCs. Breakupdown, which launches off with a simple drum-and-sample backpacker beat on “Hamado,” begins with something familiar. It’s the type of laid-back beat nearly every rapper has spit “conscious” rhymes over. In fact, the beat creates such a feeling of familiarity that you’ll hardly notice when Poirier flips his steez on the following track, “Don’t Smile, It’s Post-Modern,” which starts like a minimal Pharrell club anthem until layer upon layer is added, the original loops are manipulated, and the beat becomes the farthest thing from ordinary Common fodder. In a sense, Poirier has first built the standard wall—to show he can—only to tear it down and reconstruct the pieces into a levitating super-wall that can read minds, predict the future, and cure cancer.

Whether he’s dropping a space-age bass grind for rapper Beans to spit his obtuse rhymes on “Cold as Hell,” looping and chopping strings for lush instrumental semi-chaos on “Refuse to Lose,” crafting captivating ragga flavors on “Mic Diplomat,” or making the most of minimal building blocks on “Reviére De Diamants,” Poirier’s consistently challenging our expectations of instrumental and MC-based hip-hop production in a manner that would leave Prefuse 73 applauding in humble submission. Shit, he even taps into some shoegazer guitar fuzz on “La Blessure.” Poirier can hold the spotlight, but he also knows how to lay the nonintrusive foundation for a featured lyricist. Just wait until the hip-hop heads get a hold of this talent. Big things, you hear me?