MUSIC

L'ORANGE AND J DILLA

or something worth ruining your computer for

By Kyle Davis 

Turn this man L'Orange

Peeking through my fingers at my computer screen, I wondered how I got to this point. The only words in English were the song titles, and the page itself looked more virus(y) than Limewire and COVID combined. Once I received the zip file, I closed my eyes and double-clicked. When I heard the music, I was ecstatic. One, because it was music, not corrupted software; and two, because here again was the strange and beautiful sounds of L’Orange that I have come to love. The album is just a short 7-track tribute to J Dilla but I had become such a L’Orange fan that I risked ruining a work computer to get it. I’ve never been this type of superfan of any one artist, so how did this happen?

The first time I heard a L’Orange creation, I was listening to Apollo Brown radio while riding the subway to or from somewhere. I was in search of some good producer-driven hip hop and Apollo Brown was one of my favorite producers at the time. I like a strong bass somewhere near the ones and threes, and something resembling a snare near the twos and fours. Apollo Brown was moving away from that standard structure and adding a softened, or missing, bass and snare throughout his songs. They felt like song length intros without a song. Or to use a visual analogy, a painting without a canvas to put it on.

Give him some L'Orange

I was barely listening, thinking of something else, when the song “Taken by the Night” came on. Have you ever heard a piano have apathy? That’s what it was like, a melody without any resonance, living perfectly between the beats, content just to hit the notes and die. Those beautifully ascending notes did not care what I thought; They knew they were perfect.

I’ve heard great things before, but they never represented the artist’s work. I overthink everything, and, in this case, I have no shortage of questions. Why couldn’t they make more like that? Do they want to? Do they hear what I’m hearing? Are they consciously keeping it to one or two of these per album to keep our sensory overload from bursting? Would the gratification of an entire album full of such perfection ruin everything else?

Always, toujours, L'Orange

Everyone has unconscious limitations—is that the problem? Have the events of my life brought me to like something that no one else cares about? I casually made my way into a L’Orange album, stoic from the sprinkle of limited creations that actually make me feel something. If anyone on the train was paying attention, they would have seen me transform. As each song began and ended, I noticed that this is just what L’Orange does, which is exactly what I’ve been looking for, and which is exactly what I love.

Between the voice samples, the strange sounds, the melodies, and the beats, L’Orange’s art is perfectly balanced. Old films — at least that’s what they sound like — help to tell the story of each song. But, of course, it is even more interesting than that. These samples are from a large record collection of audio theatre that the mysterious L’Orange inherited. The contrast between the crisp, beautiful music and the worn-out dusty vinyl is interesting and grounding. A woman says, “I did it for you” at the beginning of one of the songs. Then old music begins to play and struggles to stay on time; maybe the album is warped. The effect feels like Magician’s music from the 1920’s. But, more importantly, it transports you, gives you a feeling of wonder at the world around you. This is not a genre known for nuanced emotion and yet L’Orange provides emotional kicks that seem to leap out of the music.

When he wasn't L'Orange

With beautiful aesthetics and intellectual scope, L’Orange is able to fill an entire album with songs that truly make you feel something inside, something that most producers can ascend to a few times in their entire career. Alexithymia is characterized as the inability to identify and describe emotions — the cure is in the melodies he produces. High and low pitches work together to make you feel happy, cool, free and empathetic at the same time. His attention to detail and ability to tell a story through his music is unmatched. He uses all the fire that anyone would need to light the candle, so there is no chance of holding one to him.

©Kyle Davis and the CCA Arts Review