CAMA presents Onra, Parisian/Vietnamese DJ

– Sat 28 June in Hanoi, Sat 05 July in HCMC –
CAMA and our co-conspirators in HCMC are preparing to bring acclaimed Parisian/Vietnamese DJ and producer Onra to VN to perform for the first time at the end of this month.

Sat 28 June – Nha San Ben Ho in Hanoi with the CAMA Sound System and DJ Jase
Sat 05 July – Vasco’s in HCMC with DJ Jase, the Jetlag Crew and Da Remedy.

Onra, Parisian/Vietnamese DJ

ONRA

By Kjartan Hallibut

Around the end of 2007 an album by a previously unknown Parisian hip-hop producer started to pop-up throughout the blogosphere and in the internet’s choicest online record emporiums. Entitled “Chinoiseries”,the 32-track cd seemed to complement recent efforts by more established underground beatmakers. While mainstream hiphop devolves into a grotesque trainwreck, cult producers are throwing their nets ever wider as they search to bring some freshness to the beats. In 2007 Madlib blessed us with his “Beat Konducta goes to India” joint (flipping Bollywood soundtracks) while his little brother Oh No dropped the superlative “Dr. No’s Oxperiment”, constructed around samples of Turkish psychedelic rock records. Meanwhile Brian “Dangermouse” Burton of Gnarls Barkley fame proclaims his love for the amazing garage rock scene of early 70s Cambodia that’s entranced eveybody from Matt Dillon to Nik Cohn.

Onra’s “Chinoseries” album was on a similar tip, looping samples from 60s Chinese pop records over low-slung post-Dilla beats. The album quickly gathered accolades fom the likes of Boomkat.com (who called it a “brilliantly odd instrumental hip-hop album”) and recieved a thumbs up from dubstep godfather Kode 9. But in fact the mysterious Parisian’s project pre-dated the current craze for ethnodelic hip-hop, having its genesis during Onra’s 2006 visit to Vietnam (homeland of his parents). While visiting an orphanage in Hue, he decided to release a Vietnam-inspired album and donate the proceeds to Vietnamese orphans. Back in Paris, armed with a crateful of crackly Chinese and Vietnamese vinyl rescued from Saigon markets, he set to work. Inspiration flowed quickly and 15 of the tracks were recorded within a week.

Fast-forward to two years later, and the now internationally-renowned producer is returning to Vietnam to perform some live shows based around his breakthrough record. As well as performing one-off dates in Hanoi (courtesy of CAMA)and HCMC (courtesy of DJ Jase’s Saturday Jams), he’ll spend a month travelling and hopefully gathering inspiration for “Chinoiseries Pt.II”.

Needless to say, those dates in Hanoi and HCMC are highly anticipated in a country which has not yet seen a tour by any underground beat producer of note. While Onra is best-known for Chinoseries, he’s a versatile producer with several albums showcasing different veins of hip-hop under his belt. Those who attend his shows in Vietnam should expect some on-the-fly improvisation with a sampler (showcasing both Chinoseries and his other material) as well as a DJ set.

And in case you were wondering, the man is also a fan of Cambodian garage rock. He opines that “some of these artists’ songs could have been worlwide hits”. Hell yeah

For more info on Onra, see:

http://www.myspace.com/onra
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=7193
For updates and details visit camageddon.wordpress.com
or contact [email protected].