Today a Montreal based DJ/Producer named Poirier kicks off the “Running High” tour in Hamilton that will take him from one side of Canada to the other. The title of the tour stems from his latest album Running High, a two disc culmination opus of recorded material from the past 12 months. This is Ghislain Poirier’s (Pwa-ri-ay) seventh full length release and he is our X3 artist of the month.

Previous to the new disc, Poirier has put out a ton of releases since the turn of the century including the critically acclaimed Breakupdown in 2005 and No Ground Under in 2008, giving him the moniker Montreal’s “Sweet Potato.” Using “Bounce Le Gros,” which Poirier said means ‘bounce your big ass,’ as his motto early on when he played shows with Montreal MC Seba, Poirier took the love of bass and incorporated it into everything. He has since mixed genres such as grime, crunk, hip-hop, reggae, booty house to various tropical rhythms and urban electro. Whatever the style, he’s put mad bass behind it.

Having shared the stage worldwide with the likes of Diplo, Modeseleker, Kode9, Amon Tobin, Poirier has played at several festivals such as SXSW, Australia’s Big Day Out, Montreux Jazz Festival and Fabric London among others. With each show, the fan base as well as the list of collaborations has grown. Poirier has worked with MCs and DJs from several genres from soca to booty base with artists like DJ/rupture, Crookers, Mr Slaughter as well as longtime collaborators Face-T and MC Zulu.

The latest release, out now, features Poirier’s last three EP’s on the first disc and ranges in sound from digi-dancehall bangers, hyper Soca rhythms to techno/Caribbean hybrids. The second disc contains alternate versions of the tracks with appearances by Juno award winning reggae musician Mikey Dangerous, ERUP, MC Boogat and remixes by Douster, Sticky, Uproot Andy, Baobinga, Marflix and several others. Poirier’s musical limits are endless, but there is only one catch or rule and that is ‘it’s gotta have bass, and it’s got to bounce.’

Canadian Tour Dates:

April 1 – Hamilton – Club Absinthe
April 3 – Ottawa – Ritual
April 8 – Toronto – Wrong Bar
April 9 – Montreal – Belmont
April 10 – Gatineau – Petit Chicago
April 15 – Halifax – Paragon Theater
April 16 – Saint John – Evolution Nightclub
April 22 – Calgary – Hifi Club
April 23 – Saskatoon – Skratch
April 24 – Edmonton -Starlite
April 30 – Victoria – Super Nightclub
May 1 – Vancouver – Biltmore Cabaret