Long Distance All City ***

A fresh approach to abstract beats has served French producer Onra well to date. His excellent Chinoseriesalbum, for instance, was compiled around vintage Vietnamese pop samples and provided an exotic feast of dusty grooves. Onra follows the hip-hop boogie line with this album of neon-lit deep funk jams and electrosoul grooves that shimmer and shine just so. Like Hudson Mohawke and especially Dam-Funk, Onra has a head for textures and tones that set the scene and provide a nocturnal narrative. Along with such collaborators as Olivier DaySoul, Onra works up warm, luxurious, slick, smooth tracks that harken back to the classic electro rubs of the 1980s, when deep synths and far-out sound effects were a harbinger of what 21st-century funk might be like. Tracks such as the title track, My Mind Is Gone, My Cometand Rock Onare fine examples of Onra's new melting pot. See myspace.com/onra

Download tracks: Long Distance, My Mind Is Gone