Recently in Blunted on the Blog Category

In the last Blunted on the Blog entry, I talked about the new generation of multicultural beat CDs that have grown in popularity in the second half of this decade and have, for the most part, overtaken the sprawling hip-hop epics (think Endtroducing ..... and all its successors) that have traditionally defined the instrumental hip-hop genre. Specifically, I focused on French producer Onra and his 2008 release, Chinoiseries. But, looking back on it, I probably got a bit ahead of myself and should retrace the history of how these type of beat tapes became en vogue.

As with most trends in underground hip-hop for the past five or so years, the phenomenon began indirectly with J Dilla and his 2006 release, Donuts. Dilla has always been one of the most stylistically adventurous producers in hip-hop, flipping between the warm, jazzy boom bap of his earlier years to the colder, more forceful electro of his middle period. But Donuts -- in its fractured, ADD glory -- presented the producer at his most naked. Culled from a series of beat CDs that had been circulating for some time, most of the songs on Donuts are little more than sketches. No song touches the two-minute mark, and a few barely even progress beyond simple loops. Though fragments, they collectively offer an intensely personal meditation on the soul music that dominated Dilla’s childhood in Detroit.

When I interviewed Dilla's mother, Ma Dukes, for a 2006 feature we did on the life of her son, she told me that as a child, he rarely slept. At night, the only way a young Dilla would go under was if his father hummed basslines to popular soul songs. I know that this is projecting my own narrative, but I can’t help but feel that Donuts, which was literally recorded on Dilla’s deathbed, added a certain symmetry to his life.

But really, I digress. I didn’t want to talk about Dilla as much as his influence: Donuts shifted the direction of instrumental hip-hop. It demonstrated that a beat tape can be a proper release; after Donuts, the new generation of instrumental hip-hop CDs seemed more naturalistic and less affected. His influence not only can be felt in the music of Onra, but it also allowed his Stones Throw labelmates Madlib and Oh No to pursue their own visions. You can especially hear his influence in Flying Lotus, whose 2008 CD Los Angeles was -- structurally at least -- a throwback to the more tightly structured instrumental hip-hop CDs.

Next time we'll try to get around to some of Oh No's releases.

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In the daze I’ve been in since quitting smoking a few weeks ago, I’ve been attempting to see life in softer, fuzzier tones. I've been suppressing the "fight or flight" instinct, which focuses me on individual tasks (i.e. smoking) in favor of a more open-ended approach where the world is a pastiche with a multitude of possible story lines (only one of which involves getting nicotine into your body).

Xanax helps, as does instrumental hip-hop. Since the last time I gave this subgenre any real attention, which was the last time I tried to quit smoking about two years ago, there has been a quiet transformation in the medium. Largely gone are the sprawling epics -- the carefully sequenced long players that DJ Shadow used to be known for. They’ve been replaced by CDs that are effectively beat tapes -- the rough, demo sketches that hip-hop producers used to send to prospective rappers. And, more often than not, these have tended to focus on a particular genre or theme.

If Endtroducing..... took itself deadly serious, then the new generation of instrumental discs are more likely to be one-off larks: Vietnamese pop filtered through the lens of Brooklyn boom bap, or Mediterranean psychedelia looped over a '70s soul breakbeat. Though there are some notable exceptions, gone is the “cinematic soundscape” of Endtroducing..... or RJD2's Dead Ringer, and “in” is lo-fi hip-hop’s multicultural renaissance.

The first album I’d like to talk about is Chinoiseries, from French beat chef Onra. Honestly, I’m not too familiar with him, but this 2008 album has been on pretty constant rotation. Culled largely from Vietnamese pop that Onra found while scavenging that country’s flea markets, Chinoiseries alternates between head-nodding hip-hop beats and the hypnotic strings and wiry, mysterious vocals of his hiss-laden sample material. As a craftsman, Onra is clearly indebted to the Stones Throw crew -- although, in general, I don’t think he’s on their level -- but there’s something eerily beautiful about the music here. “Last Tango in Saigon” sounds like the denouement of the saddest noir film ever, while “Relax in Mui Ne” is sublime dentist office music. The album is haunting, and the language barrier only adds to the music’s mystery and durability.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll periodically post different albums similar to Chinoiseries. Next week, we’ll look at the albums coming from the Stones Throw clique. Just check for the Blunted on the Blog tag, and feel free to drop a line.