An introduction to Onra...

First of all, another happy birthday to my brother TK who turned 29 on the first of May. A seemingly endless well of positivity, I hope he has thoroughly enjoyed his birthday weekend. Today, I spent the majority of the day immersed in my usual internet perusal of cool new music (which is really just searching a couple trusted blogs and branching out from there). The first to catch my attention was a Vietnamese French producer named Onra. (Check him on Myspace.) A tasteful producer with a very Dilla-esque sound, he went to Vietnam back in 2006, and came back with a bunch of vintage vinyl he found while crate-digging on the streets of Saigon. His latest project showcases the beats he made out of the old gems acquired on that excursion, and is entitled "Chinoiseries" (see definition and reference here). I have yet to hear more than a few selections from this project (available along with his other releases on boomkat.com), but what I have heard is really refreshing.

Here's a taste of "Chinoiseries" courtesy of the tube:





The album I have been bumping while writing this is a project he did with another producer named Quetzal on BoBun Records in 2007. It is called "Onra & Quetzal Present Tribute", and it is entirely sampled from classic soul records. It is a very relaxing listen, and highly recommended if you like instrumental hip-hop in the Dilla/Madlib vein. I found a site that had a megaupload link to grab the whole album, click the album cover below to download it while the link lasts.



It looks like they put out a "Tribute 2" in 2008. I'll have to check it. In the meantime, check out this record of Onra's courtesy of LastFM...it's called "1.0.8" and it is dope! The site is okay, not too familiar with it, I logged in and it still made me keep pressing play after each song, but at least it let me listen to the entire album.

Off to go get some lunch...