L'ORANGE レコード& CD

Review: The Night Took Us In Like Family is the first collaborative album from American producer L'Orange and cultured rapper Jeremiah Jae. The Mellow Music label originally released it back in 2015 and it performed well with some fine guest appearances from Gift of Gab and Homebody Sandman. The album is rife with beautiful storytelling from Jae who delivers his ideas in a gangsta rap style but the first-rate beats are more soulful, giving rise to a style the pair called 'noir hop'. They are louche, lo-fi and drawn from the golden era of boom-bap with plenty of smart samples.

Review: L'Orange is a pretty prodigious and prolific producer who has worked with a wide range of collaborators in his time. For Time? Astonishing! he has joined up with a bona-fide legend in Kool Keith as well as calling upon some fine features from the likes of J-Live, Mr. Lif, Open Mike Eagle, Blu, Montage One, DJ Trackstar, MC Paul Barman, and MindsOne. It's a a great mix of vibes that appeal to both fans of heady and cerebral hip hop and those who simply like to get lost in sorted and hazy beats. L'Orange does a fine job of adapting his sound to fit the mercurial Kool Keith style and the result is a rather hallucinatory listen.

Review: Mello Music have decided to give this new album Time? Astonishing! from prodigious talent L'Orange and legendary hip-hop mic man Kool Keith the full treatment and serve it up on an array of different formats. This version comes on orange and blue vinyl so it looks as good as it sounds. L'Orange has worked with a wide range of collaborators in the past and this one features a number of fine guests such as f J-Live, Mr. Lif, Open Mike Eagle, Blu, Montage One, DJ Trackstar, MC Paul Barman, and MindsOne. Musically it is a great mix of vibes that appeal to both fans of heady and cerebral hip-hop and those who simply like to get lost in sorted and hazy beats. The two different talents come together in a fascinating new middle ground that makes this another LP well wroth hearing.

Review: On Signature, Joell Ortiz's raw lyrical prowess converges with L’Orange's time-honed production chops, resulting in a pure collaborative bombshell. L'Orange crafts beats exuding an undeniable vintage charm, which mesh delectably with Ortiz’s frank flows and delivery; most notable among these fusions is ‘In My Feelings’, detailing Ortiz’s upbringing as a young Brooklynite in search of purpose, then reflecting on his self-actualisation since those day ones. Not all is peachy, though: ‘Masked Up’ draws compelling metaphorical parallels between music industry rejection and harder street hustling, and L’Orange’s hazed-out stomper of a beat wickedly complements these harder-than-nails travails.