Chinoiserie is a French term that refers to the application of Chinese influences in art, a practice that was especially in vogue in the sphere of European art around the 17th century. Chinoiseries, on the other hand, is the name of a 2007 album from electronic producer Onra. The title holds weight, kind of; Onra's French, his familial lineage can be traced back to Vietnam, and-- most importantly-- the album-cum-beat-tape drew heavily from samples of old Chinese and Vietnamese records for dusty boom-bap inspiration. Onra's career has often been about drawing from sounds associated with far-away (for him, anyway) places; last year's brilliant Long Distance didn't so much appropriate the thick, silky sounds of R&B and funk as it did wear those genres' resemblances like a close-fitting jacket.
Those awaiting a logical follow-up to that release, unfortunately, are going to have to wait a little longer: as the title suggests, his new album Chinoiseries, Pt. 2 is a return to the first installment's Asian-samples-meets-hip-hop-beats concept. It's a conceit that, as Onra presumably tips his hat to with this collection's "One For the Wu", is not exactly a new one, and Lord Quas knows that beat-tape LPs aren't exactly a scarcity, especially as J Dilla's influence looms large (along with his ability to be name-checked in relation to seemingly everything these days). Onra's pretty good at the beat-tape thing, though, as evidenced by the first Chinoiseries and 2009's comparatively formalist 1.0.8 (Long Distance is also a similarly built album, just in a very solid, well-structured manner).
Chinoiseries, Pt. 2, by comparison, is a strange failure of an album, possibly because the quality of the content seldom (if never) rises above its been-there, heard-that nature. The Pt. 2 says it all, really; it's more of the same, diminishing returns and all. The source material contributes to the "diminishing returns" part; there are moments when Onra crafts brief gems wielding slow spookiness ("Mais Theme") and lyrical melodic turns ("Where I'm From"), but there's not much on display in terms of ideas, most tracks wearing out their welcome regardless of their brevity (only a few scattered tracks top out over two minutes).
As an album proper, Chinoiseries, Pt. 2 is a bit of a patience-tester. For one, it's long (a mind-boggling 32 tracks that stretch across 58 minutes), and other than a pair of bookending cuts titled "The Arrival" and "The End", respectively, there's not much here that suggests a thoughtful approach to proper album sequencing. Maybe if we weren't expected to regard this as a proper album instead of what it really is-- a data dump that's enjoyable in small bursts but incredibly spotty as a total body of work-- it wouldn't be so disappointing. The issue, however, is that said disappointment possibly has less to do with the album at hand than the one that preceded it. A potential breakthrough like Long Distance, a record that took a fresh, engaging approach to form that's been in danger of sounding tired for a minute now, deserves a proper follow-up, or at least an attempt at one. Chinoseries, Pt. 2 is neither of those, and that's okay-- it's Onra's career, after all-- but such an allowance doesn't make listening to it any more enjoyable.
