- Before he made one of the most endearing records of the whole bass-music-cum-vintage-funk shtick with Long Distance, Parisian producer Onra traded in choppy hip-hop, probably best exemplified on 2007's Chinoiseries. That record was blinding if not a little ambitious, an hour plus of hip-hop sketches fashioned from Chinese and Southeast Asian pop vinyl, as if Dilla got lost in a sea of Sublime Frequencies and Finders Keepers compilations. It was a long record whose gimmick wore thin eventually, which is why I greeted the news of a second part with some uncertainty.
Chinoiseries Pt. 2 comes not on the original's Favorite Records but on Onra's new home All City, and whether it's just the passage of time or the influence of the imprint, this edition immediately feels more approachable. Sure, most of these songs are less than two minutes long, but they also focus more on catchy melodic phrases or instrumental hooks rather than capitalizing on weirdness or exotica. For most of its duration the disc finds a happy medium between surface-level conceit and agreeable, head-nodding rhythms. It's hard to pick out highlights over a disc of thirty-two tracks, but some of the most impressive moments come when Onra contorts the foreign source material to fit more Western ideas: "One for the Wu" puts a literal spin on RZA's smoky orientalism, while tracks like "No Matter What" use vocal chopping techniques akin to modern bass music.
It's always dangerous when dealing with this kind of source material, ravaged not only by a lack of any kind of intellectual property protection but also by time and space, music whose influence has been worn down as much by its obscurity as the literal weather that's left its discernible imprint on these repurposed samples. The fidelity fares better than the first volume—vinyl crackle feels less prominent—and so does the palette: we get Mellotron pomp on "In My Mind," funk-calibre horn fanfares on several tracks and full-throated foreign bazaar orchestras on "Warriors Pride" and "Like Father, Like Son." No matter where he's getting the sounds from, Onra has a knack for looping, slicing, and editing them, and Chinoiseries Pt. 2 is one of the most intriguing takes on Dillaesque experimental hip-hop sprawl since Flying Lotus' Los Angeles, taking a rather scientific and self-limiting approach and making it sound like a hell of a lot of fun.
Tracklist 01. The Arrival
02. A New Dynasty
03. It's All Memories
04. Remember The Name
05. Open The Door
06. Gotta Go
07. Mai's Theme
08. Words Of Encouragement
09. Trapped
10. One For The Wu
11. No Matter What
12. Meet The Queen
13. Stay With Me
14. Opium Delirium
15. Cold Blooded
16. Where I'm From
17. Still Broke
18. Snakes & Smoke
19. Mai's Theme
20. Raw Shit
21. Ms. Ho
22. All Night
23. In My Mind
24. Hide And Seek
25. Play The Game
26. Warriors Pride
27. Like Father, Like Son
28. Fight Or Die
29. Through The Flesh
30. Tears Of Joy
31. They Got Breaks Two
32. The End