About

— The Analog Vault // Essential Listening —

Paris-based producer Onra transformed his travels through Asia into beat collage on Chinoiseries Part I, originally released in 2007 via All City Records. Built from dusty Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai vinyl samples, the album’s fragments of dialogue, strings and flutes float over tight boom-bap drums.

Tracks like “The Anthem,” “Relax in Mui Ne” and “Chop Your Hands” weave nostalgia with head-nodding precision, balancing cultural homage and hip-hop craftsmanship. There’s warmth beneath the grit — a sense of memory stitched into rhythm — that gives the record emotional depth beyond its concept. Chinoiseries Part I stands as a benchmark for global crate-digging production, turning found sound into living narrative. — The Analog Vault
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Now a 'cult classic' , repressed for 2023 ears on All City Dublin. Onra started the project in August 2006, freshly returned from a trip to Vietnam, the land of his grandparents. A vinyl junkie at heart, he really couldn’t come back to France without bringing back some wax. After hours spent riding on a motorbike through the streets of Saigon, a taxi finally helped him find some Asian records - he almost felt like an explorer discovering a forgotten treasure. He bought 30 records, most of them in poor condition, went back to his crib and started making beats with material that he wasn’t quite used to. — (via Word and Sound)

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Label: All City Records
Series: Chinoiseries
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue
Reissued: 2023 / Original: 2017
Genre: Hip Hop, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Instrumental

File under: TAV Essential Listening
File under: Hip Hop 
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