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Poirier?s guiding hand ensured there would be a unity to the radical deconstructions of Ariane Moffatt?s songs on MA Remix, but the process ?took some getting used to,? Moffatt admits. ?There?s a resistance to change.?
Photograph by: Pierre Obendrauf , Montreal Gazette
MONTREAL - ?When you remix someone, you can?t have respect,? said Poirier.
If that?s true, the Montreal beat-maker has no respect for acclaimed singer-songwriter Ariane Moffatt, who hired him to oversee her new EP, MA Remix. And that?s a good thing.
?If you have respect, you won?t bring your own flavour (to the track),? Poirier explained. ?You?ll be too afraid.?
Listening to MA Remix, it?s clear there wasn?t much fear in the air. The six-track collection features reworked songs from Moffatt?s bilingual album MA, released earlier this year.
The originals are barely recognizable within these alternately ethereal, funky and expansively ambient versions. Moffatt?s soothing vocals are cut up and sprinkled about freely; melodies are deconstructed, reconstructed and sometimes abandoned altogether as songs take on completely new identities.
There?s a great unity to the set, which checks in somewhere between trip-hop, deep house and a twinkling after-party esthetic, with hip-hop and dancehall elements thrown in for good measure.
?It took some getting used to,? Moffatt said. ?Sometimes (upon getting a track back) I was like, ?Excuse me, but I don?t recognize anything.? There?s a resistance to change.
?(Poirier) told me, ?You?re going to freak out in the beginning.? He was right.?
They can laugh about it now, and jibes were being traded freely as the two sat in a Plateau brew-pub last Tuesday afternoon; but they come from a place of mutual respect.
Moffatt?s music has elements of pop, folk, reggae and rock, but has always dabbled in electro. And she?s been here before, having passed out tracks to local techno producers Akufen, Deadbeat and Pheek for her 2009 Tous les sens remix EP.
This time, she wanted someone else to take the reins, so she approached Poirier ? first about remixing one song, Too Late, then about taking charge of the whole project.
Poirier is Montreal?s go-to guy for underground party jams. He has released a half-dozen albums over the last decade, including two on Ninja Tune, 2007?s No Ground Under and 2010?s Running High.
?He?s an ambassador in a scene that is kind of hermetic,? Moffatt said. ?He was the perfect guy to be the quarterback, to find people, structure the project and give cohesion to things. He?s organized, efficient and talented.?
Poirier feigned protest at the praise, but was genuinely appreciative of the opportunity to build a bridge between musical worlds.
?There aren?t enough projects like this in Quebec,? he said. ?Pop music needs to expand. As long as no one takes risks, we won?t know where it can go. When there are artists like Bj?rk or Dizzee Rascal that are (considered) pop artists elsewhere in the world, I find we?re kind of lame in Quebec. Things like this give a chance to bring an alternate vision to a wider public.?
The two shared ideas for guest producers, with Poirier leading the charge. Aside from his track and Moffatt?s minimal-house take on Walls of the World, the roster includes Austin, Tex., producer Dubbel Dutch and former Montrealer Nautiluss (a.k.a. former Thunderheist producer Grahmzilla), offering contrasting approaches to the dreamy H?tel amour; Toronto dub-dancehall duo Bonjay, who bring a feisty touch to L?homme dans l?automobile; and Montreal live-electro trio Plaster, who get sensuously clubby on In Your Body.
While everyone had creative freedom, Poirier did try to guide things toward a cohesive end product.
?I would say, ?I liked the direction of the last EP you did ? can you go that way?? ? he explained.
The result is an adventurous collection of multi-textured tracks, very much in the spirit of the original MA album. Moffatt?s fourth full-length saw her sing in English on six of 11 songs and tour in the rest of Canada and the U.S., where she played the South by Southwest and CMJ music festivals for the first time.
MA did hit a stumbling block in Quebec, however, where the ADISQ awards? strict language rules prevented it from being nominated in most major categories ? despite the fact that the chanteuse?s three previous albums each won multiple awards, including pop-rock album of the year.
Moffatt performed in the ADISQ gala?s opening number on Oct. 28, but she came home empty-handed, having received just one nomination, for anglophone album of the year (even though MA has five songs in French).
?It was a bummer, for sure,? she said, ?especially for this album, my baby, which I made all on my own.?
Yet she was philosophical about the slight.
?Our francophone music scene has been made strong based on methods used to preserve the language,? she said. ?I don?t want to (complain) ? I chose to sing in English. And if there?s no way to ensure the survival of francophone expression in song, it could disappear.
?It?s a question of rules. It proves the album was off the beaten path.?
?Welcome to my world,? said Poirier, who knows about making music outside the industry framework.
As evidenced by MA Remix, these two aren?t about to conform any time soon.
MA Remix is released on Tuesday.
tdunlevy@montrealgazette.com
Twitter: @tchadunlevy
? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
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