Breakupdown

AMG Review of Breakupdown

Stewart Mason
All Music Guide

Montreal-based producer Ghislain Poirier's music has been given the cutesy subgenre name "glitch-hop" by some, and vaguely irritating though that neologism is, it sort of fits. Imagine if Lil Jon got ahold of a bunch of Mouse on Mars and Oval records and you're more than halfway to the thudding, minimalist beats and cut-up electronic jingles that are the basis of Breakupdown. The instrumentals occasionally venture into the overstuffed mix'n'match aesthetic of DJ Shadow or Cut Chemist (one key exception being the spare, chilling "Close the News"), and linking interludes like "Té Wack" (a babbling freestyle in Quebecois French delivered in a goofily inappropriate gangsta rhythm) are fun but slight. But the meat of Breakupdown is in solid underground hip-hop tracks like "Cold as Hell" and "Nowhere to Run." For good measure, there's a pair of dancehall riddims featuring toasting by DJ Collage, one in English and another (the terrific "Riviere de Diamants") in French. There are so many different influences in Breakupdown that it occasionally threatens to fall apart; the fact that it never quite does is testament to Poirier's canny intelligence.