Articles
Roger O'Donnell
Morgan Packard

Albums
The Ace of Clubs
akido
Cenotype
Cyrus
Mathias Delplanque
Entia Non
Michael Fakesch
False
Forrest
Kraig Grady
Kiln
Kingfisherg
Low in the Sky
Payton MacDonald
Manitou
Martin & Machinefabriek
Mt. Fuji Doom. Corporation
Need More Sources
Nobile
Odd Nosdam
Ontayso
Jair-Rôhm Parker Wells
RF & Lili De La Mora
Schmickler / Chisholm
The Sea
Seabear
Valgeir Sigurðsson
Silvania
Six Twilights
Aaron Spectre
Stamen & Pistils
Swayzak
Tijuana M. A. Broad. Inc.
Utom Alla
Pete Warren
Yaporigami

Compilations / Mixes
Box of Dub
Expanse at Low Levels
Ibiza – Renaissance Vol. 4
Jahtarian Dubbers Vol. 1
The Silence Was Warm

3"/ 7"/ 10"/ 12"/ EPs
Abiku / Kid Camaro
Audio Injection
B12
Bering & Simko
Bury the Sound
The Caribbean
DJ C feat. Zulu
Entia Non
Flavius E
Andre Gardeja
Lerosa
Magnum 38
Microthol
Ontayso
Troy Pierce
Ghislain Poirier
Rusuden
Skoozbot
Slap [unmodified]
Sonmi451
Joel Tammik
TG

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

This review also appears in Grooves.