Onra - Fundamentals (CD)

Fundamentals, Parisian producer Onra’s third solo LP with All City Records, is a paean to 90s hip-hop and R&B long players, an album that wears its Golden Era inspirations proudly on its sleeve.

Far more than the sum of its influences, it’s a retro-futuristic sound, looking back but thinking forward. A collaborative project with a busy line up, which has taken a while to cook up, the features run the gamut from back-in-the-day heads to fresh up-and-comers. Taking the production levels up a notch with a more crafted, polished sound across the whole LP, the album was produced entirely on an MPC with no computer software used.

Young Harlem MC Perrion kicks off proceedings, making the step up from mixtapes to vinyl effortlessly.Chuck Inglish flies solo on “So Long” and long time Onra friend Olivier Daysoul pairs up with Daz Dillinger of Dogg Pounder on one for the Lowriders – “We Ridin”. Cult Chicago rap group Do or Die also team up with a soul singer – their old collaborator Johnny P – “Over & Over” has the whole Rap-A-Lot crew in action and the soulful theme continues with a Suzi Analogue slow jam and Dutch MC Melodee on a Love Tip. KC of bubbling up London collective Last Night in Paris shows why he can count Pharrell among his devotees and other guests include rap crew the Doppelgangaz and Black Milk, who brings it to a close, ending a very personal project for the French producer, built on hip-hop and R&B foundations and flipped in his own signature style.