As soon as I heard The Chinoiseries I was hooked. It was very apparent that Onra, a Parisian producer of Vietnamese decent who grew up on ’90s rap, was into beat aesthetics that mirrored my own. His subsequent work was equally as moving and I’m glad that after a few years later, I was able to catch up with him and nerd out on over records. Ahead of Dilla’s bday month, I spoke to Onra for Ego Trip about his favorite Jay Dee flips–peep it HERE.
We’re glad to hear Onra’s back, especially since it’s a followup to his breakthrough release, Chinoiseries. The forthcoming Chinioseries Pt. 2 is also widely sample based, all taken from records Onra grabbed on his travels through Southeast Asia. The album’s lead single “A New Dynasty” is another gong-filled production, neatly clocking in at under 2-minutes; followed by “No Matter What”, the album’s second single. Peep Chinoiseries Pt. 2 out in a few weeks (and it’s promo video seen HERE to get a sense of Onra’s style and approach).
From the upcoming Chinoiseries Pt. 2 :
‘A New Dynasty’
‘No Matter What’
‘I Wanna Go Back’
‘Relax In Mui Ne’
Parisian beatsmith Onra stopped by SF during a recent small tour that took him across major US cities. His visit reminded me of how much I dug his Chinoiseries, an instrumental release from ’07 with touches of Dilla and even early RZA, but with far out timbres and melodies all lifted from 30 or so Southeast Asian records he found in Vietnam. His latest, Long Distance, heavily deviates from Chinoiseries, sounding more like an electro boogie album than dusty boom bap. For a relatively new producer, dude’s already shown much versatility with a penchant for sampling the old and unusual. Glad he’s getting some shine. Peep a couple tracks from the Chinoiseries and purchase his latest album HERE.
