Audiopile Review: Glasgow label co:clear follows up last year’s highlighted release from chantssss with the second full length from French producer Jonnnah, a relatively new name to us but someone who has been circling close in recent years (see their contribution to the 2022 Vapordub comp) before making this lateral move to co:clear. Right out the gate, an appearance from Pavel Milyakov (Buttechno to most of you out there) sets the album off on a hushed note, a submerged ambient piece of heavenward guitars, churning FX, glassy chimes and vaporized vocals. The mood quickly shifts from here, but the density of Jonnnah’s productions remains just as sticky and tactile. Breaking through the haze of syrupy ambiance, Jonnnah unloads orbs of off-entered ambient techno, blissed breakbeats and dub-wise plumes, the occasional affected vocal popping up to bring an emo-adjacent levity to his tightly wound percussive bomblets. You can surely draw comparisons to Shinetiac’s fractal trip-hop, Ben Bondy’s emo-laced ambient-pop and Naemi’s dreamtime atmospherics, but Jonnnah’s whipping up his own frothy batch of electronics. Big recommendation!

***

co:clear is overjoyed to welcome Jonnnah to its fold, with a new long-form 12” edition. Featuring Pavel Milyakov (aka Buttechno) right off the bat, ‘Me, With You’ is an album that grips its listener tight with gleaming electronica, off-kilter trip-hop and swampy bass.

With past offerings to Soleil Rouge and Second End Records – a label which he heads – there’s a thread that laces all of Jonnnah’s work. Although never sticking to a definable bracket, the Lyon-dweller effortlessly floats through various tempers, peddling impeccable electronics as equally suited to colossal sound systems, as they are to solitary early morning walks in headphones. It’s ambient for the foreground that surprises with flurries of two-step and amen breaks – present-day sonics that doff their cap to what’s come before.