{"id":167,"date":"2011-07-04T21:18:20","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T20:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassdress.wordpress.com\/?p=167"},"modified":"2019-03-10T19:09:21","modified_gmt":"2019-03-10T19:09:21","slug":"raz-ohara-whitmey-na-original-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassdress.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/04\/raz-ohara-whitmey-na-original-mix\/","title":{"rendered":"Raz Ohara – "Whitmey Na (Original Mix)""},"content":{"rendered":"

Mister Patrick Rasmussen (not to be confused with Patrik Rasmussen) makes a great deal of music I can’t listen to.  Not that it’s bad, actually he has some amazing pieces, but the best of which are so heartfelt and distressing that I can’t suffer the emotional agony of sitting through them any more than once.  Close mic’d, unprocessed, and upfront vocals are what Raz Ohara (Patrick’s more commonly used moniker) is all about and, unknown to most, it is he who is featured on most of the most beautiful Luomo releases – The Present Lover, Could Be Like This, What Good…<\/em--><\/p>\n

The title of this track (it actually comes as part of a three track EP, but the other tracks are fucking bogus<\/em> ‘remixes’, which manage to remove ever bit of soul from the recording, while boring me to death with nuskool Berlin techno drums. This sentence is clearly too big for parenthesis, but I’m rolling with it now.) is a weird and original contraction of “With Me Now” – maybe it sounds cooler in Dutch.  At least, it won’t sound any worse.<\/p>\n

“Whitmey Na” is a slow (about 128BPM), empty, and rigidly in the key of Am.  Soft 808ish drums skitter around, sometimes sprouting delayed and very dry sounding tails whilst grooving to a single noise fashioned hit hat. This has to be one of the quietest recordings I own, every aspect and element of it lacks the confidence to step forward into the mix.  But the track isn’t what drives this thing, it’s simply functions as a metronome for Raz Ohara’s lyricism.<\/p>\n

\n
wish you could be with me now,\nlike the morning we fell in love .\nI imagine you with another man,\nrepeating the same games,\nall over and over again.<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
On paper, the first verse doesn’t look like much but it’s executed with such delicacy and honesty that it becomes quite grasping.  Raz, whispering into the mic, voice cracking, becomes utterly inescapable.  Gone are the charming but awkward Dutch pronunciation and unusual paraphrasing that made his earlier releases seem clumsy, and what we are left with is a man expressing himself in the most precise and candid manner I have ever heard on a contemporary record.  As fragile and fleeting as ever, I’d have to say that this is one of his best performances.  Raz can write lyrics with ease, but has always been haunted with a terrible electronic backing, removing the focus from himself and onto so shitty 4\/4, VST preset driven garbage.<\/p>\n
The musical accompaniment to this track isn’t quite that<\/em> bad, but it just fails to encapsulate or enhance the vocal recording in any way whatsoever.  It sound more like an early studio demo, a quick attempt at writing music so the vocal work can be recorded.  Despite this, Raz’s performance is more than strong enough to keep the whole thing worthwhile.<\/p>\n
It’s a terrible shame that no one major really paid attention to what  Raz Ohara – I could have seen him becoming a talented, non-arse version of Jay Kay from Jamiroquai<\/a>.  Instead he partnered with some talentless German robot-like musicians form Berlin and formed the forgettable “The Odd Orchestra”.  Raz Ohara has had a single release since early 2010, and I’m really hoping he’s not given up totally.  If you’re reading this Patrick, I want another acoustic album, or more dealing with Sasu – I want a Sasu Ripatti \/ Raz Ohara album.<\/p>\n
Hi Claire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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