Ghislain Poirier: La Ronde
Musique Large

La Ronde inaugurates the Paris imprint Musique Large with five instrumentals that nicely spotlight Ghislain Poirier's stylistic dexterity and trademark beat bounce. In the title cut, squirrelly machines chirp, strangely cohering into some deranged semblance of bliss, while a bruising funk bottom thrusts and stomps, while the sputtering hip-hop psychedelia of “Overwinning” lurches through a hazy mélange of panning voices and smeary noise. The impossibly funky “Slow Fat” is sweeter still, especially when Poirier strips the tune to a marauding bass and a snare that snaps as tightly as a crocodile's jaws—a shame it's only two minutes long. Maxime Robin steps in with a remix that trades the original's snap for spacey hip-hop crunch that's almost as tasty. Poirier revisits his Special Gunpowder collaboration with dj/rupture, “Taqasim Version” to let Abdel Hak's violin swoop spiritedly over a rhythm base that bridges hip-hop and dubstep, before morphing into what resembles an off-kilter klezmer variant. No doubt similar madness awaits on Poirier's upcoming Ninja Tune full-length.

August 2007