Parisian beatmaker Onra delivered one of 2007′s best efforts Chinoiseries, which chopped up retro Vietnamese pop into jazzy headboppers. His style changed into a more urban electro funk with his later productions, that are more suitable to urban radio – yet don’t have the novelty value of his debut. Long Distance his newest one out now on All City is in a similar vein that takes bits of neosoul, disco and bass music into hip-hop. The title track features the vocal work of Olivier Daysoul, who’ve previously worked with Hudson Mohawke among others. By the way, his amazing debut Chinoiseries is reissued as 2LP as well. Classic!

Long Distance is a very good album, although honestly speaking, it’s not massively inventive and Onra has clearly been particularly inspired by Dam-Funk’s groove renaissance, substituting Dam-Funk’s live approach for a greater reliance on samples. 80s funk-boogie aficionados will notice the incorporation of lots of classic jams into Long Distance; the album’s lead singles High Hopes (featuring Reggie B) and Long Distance (featuring Olivier Daysoul) are essentially modern interpretations of S.O.S. Band’s track High Hopes and Carol Williams’ track Have You For My Love, respectively. Jus’ Like Music