Onra – Long Distance (2010) (CD) (FLAC + 320 kbps)

Review@ Pitchfork.com: ”If I didn’t know better, I’d think that Onra’s Long Distance was conceived, recorded, and mastered just yesterday. The Parisian producer’s latest is that much in touch with some of electronic music’s more prevalent trends of the moment: broken beats, woozy aural effects, and the lush sounds of vintage funk and R&B, all filtered through hip-hop’s rhythmic, lyrical bounce. Which isn’t to say that Onra is merely trend-hopping; if anything, the stylistic evolution of Long Distance is more of a logical extension from his already established sound. Onra’s previous two full-lengths, 2007’s Chinoiseries and 2009’s 1.0.8, were wonderfully rooted in J Dilla’s dusty-crate beat tape aesthetic, the former (and stronger of the two) coming both after James Yancey’s tragic passing and before Dilla’s hazy, sample-heavy sound really started seeping its way into electronic music’s consciousness.
On both releases, Onra did a better Dilla than most who namecheck Dilla do right now– but they also had a certain clinical aspect to them, as if he was performing more of a musicologist’s role instead of a musician’s. That detached aspect is completely absent from Long Distance; instead, this record feels warm and luxurious. That effect is partially achieved through Onra’s use of vocal samples. One of the defining characteristics of J Dilla’s masterpiece, 2006’s Donuts, is how snatches of vocals weave in and out without ever completing themselves, reducing what would have been hypeman shouts to evocative fragments that convey hip-hop’s emotive, rather than literal, signifiers.
Onra pulls a very similar trick with R&B vocals here, creating muted, stuttering eroticism via the staggered cries on “Sitting Back” and, later, layering dusky, husky titular moans atop a one-sided phone conversation amidst the nocturnal nervousness of “Girl”. He understands that literalism is totally unnecessary when conveying how something “feels”– or, more succinctly put, that less is more.

Long Distance definitely carries Dilla’s sonic stamp on a few tracks, and its own beat tape-esque structure is reminiscent of Donuts’ formatting– but more often, Onra takes his production cues here from the dense, out-of-phase production on Flying Lotus’ Los Angeles. Beats ebb and flow with irregularity, always staying present but choosing to smack against your eardrums with varying levels of force– a stylistic tack that, in the hands of a lesser talent, could seem disorienting. Luckily, Onra keeps an evenly accessible keel on things, even on Long Distance’s more abstract passages (the head-nod bounce of “Oper8tor”, “Rock On”‘s jacked handclap funk).
This record isn’t just for headphones, either. It’s a summer album, too, conveying images of spraying fire hydrants, street fairs, and melted popsicles. Hell, there’s some straight-out hits on this record: the KISS-FM grandeur of the title track, featuring funk-styled vocalist Olivier Daysoul; Missouri R&B smooth-talker Reggie B’s buttery turn on “High Hopes”. Forget the album title– Long Distance plays its hand close to the heart, coming out all the better for it.”

1 Intro 1:00
2 My Comet 3:00
3 My Mind Is Gone [Featuring] – Olivier Daysoul 3:15
4 Rock On 1:34
5 Sitting Back 3:21
6 High Hopes [Featuring] – Reggie B 4:19
7 Girl 2:11
8 Send Me Your Love 2:41
9 WeeOut 3:45
10 Moving 2:33
11 Mechanical 4:42
12 Don’t Stop 2:43
13 The One [Featuring] – T3 From Slum Village 3:22
14 Oper8tor 1:57
15 Long Distance 5:03
16 Tape This 2:07
17 To The Beat 2:32
18 Wonderland 2:59
19 Jeeps 1:46
20 L.I.A.B. 2:50
21 Cherry (Outro) 1:51

FLAC
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MP3 320
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