MOONSTARR - Instrumentals Forever (Public Transit Canada) Comentários: Moonstarr's always got a great way with a groove, and this album is no exception -- a surprising array of shorter numbers, sifted together with a few longer bits as well! The record's not entirely in the "instrumentals" mode promised by the title -- given that some tunes have dropped-in sound samples and spoken bits, and others some more conscious rhymes or vocals -- but overall, the main focus is on the angular, skittish beats and keyboards we've come to love in Moonstarr's music -- moving here between funky styles, jazzy moments, and some boldly electric cuts. Titles include "Who's Bitin Who", "String Theory", "Get Outside", "Broken Bossa", "Clappy", and "Break It Down". © 1996-2008, Dusty Groove America, Inc. [Para Ouvir/Samples]
ONRA - Chinoiseries (Label Rouge) Comentários: Brilliantly odd instrumental hip hop album here from Onra, compiled and constructed around vintage Vietnamese pop records picked up in flea markets on a trip to the far east. 32 short tracks make up "Chinoiseries", each of them clocking in at the 1 or 2 minute mark and delivering a tight selection of beats that somehow bring to mind J Dilla, Rza, Madlib, Moondog, MF Doom and the Sublime Frequencies label rolled into one beautifully incoherent package. Having a ravenous appetite for the "Radio Transmission" style beloved of the aforementioned Sublime Frequencies crew, we might be perfectly primed for this sort of thing, but while the dusty exotica, folk and plastic pop of the source material here could so easily have ended up sounding like the sterile plunderphonic coffee table beats that typified so much instrumental hip hop in the late 90's, Onra manages to harness the mystifying magic of the original material and
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