As we all know, Being a DJ and crate-diggin’ can’t go without the other. Some practice collecting vinyl-rarities within epic dimensions and don’t just limit themselves to the local record store or some diggin’ on the side when being on vacation. Instead, they’re using their soft spot for collecting and the subsequent processing of the yield as a concept. Representatives of this approach are the globetrotter Diplo, who already rummaged Brazil, Jamaica and lately the Caribbeans for special sounds, or DJ shadow, who locks himself up in record-basements like a monk for weeks, always looking for that one and only sound. Another one is the French beat-maker Onra, who in 2007 delighted us with his record Chinoiseries Pt. 1, on which Âhe presented his experiences from a long journey through Vietnam and China. On his travels, Onra had collected kilos of folk- and pop-records from the 1960s and 1970s that were to become the foundation of the his sample-based instrumental record. The successor, Chinoiseries Pt. 2, is equally harmonic in presenting the same number (32) of exotic but still very funky-sounding instrumentals. The tracks are short and sweet and rather sketchy in their way of production, while musically following the path of the old school. Those who declared sample-based HipHop-music dead, are proven considerably wrong here. Like no other, the grandchild of Vietnamese grandparents proves his instincts for Southeast-Asian music, which he skillfully knows to apply within a HipHop-context.
Chinoiseries Part 2
