John-Lord Fonda – Walk Again (Album – Citizen Records)
Genre/Influences: Techno, Electro-Clash, Techno-Body.
Format: Digital, Vinyl.
Background/Info: Cyril Thévenard aka ‘John-Lord Fonda’ never expected to release a new full length after “Supersonique”. But ten years later the French producer unleashed this new opus featuring eleven new cuts.
Content: John-Lord Fonda composes Techno music with multiple influences on top. He first of all achieved an impressive production, the album revealing overwhelming, blasting sound treatments. It all remains Techno from a darker edge, but still features Electroclash reminiscences while other passages are into pure reverie, becoming pretty Cinematographic. Some of the most danceable tracks even lead the listener into Trance. A few tracks feature guest vocals by Gabriel Afahti and Veronika Nikolic.
+ + + : As I already said the work is characterized by a high-tech sound production. Not sure if John-Lord Fonda is only using hardware equipment, but the production clearly sounds this way. I was impressed by some humming bass lines and vintage/analogue sound treatments. Just pay attention to “Antarctica”, which is a total fusion between old Electroclash and Techno music. But I also recommend listening to “Les Dunes d’Altaïr” (previously released as a single), which features vocals while the structure of the song is ending in a transcendental effect. The album is also featuring cool, melodic sequences (cf. “Together Again”) and harder, bouncing passages (cf. “We Can’t Breathe”) here again with vocals on top.
– – – : It’s a pity we had to wait for such a long time to welcome a new album by this great artist. The work is diversified so you’ll all find some favorite cuts while I’m less convinced by the very few Cinematographic passages.
Conclusion: An album is more and becoming ‘old-school’, but it still remains a total work and when it’s accomplished with such passion as for “Walk Again” I think it still makes sense to go on releasing it.
Best songs: “Antarctica”, “Les Dunes d’Altaïr”, “Together Again”, “We Can’t Breathe”, “Race For Nothing”.
Rate: 8½.
Artist: www.facebook.com/johnlordfondaofficial
Label: www.citizen-records.com / www.facebook.com/citizenrecords
Since you’re here … … we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive. If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
