John Lord Fonda is an outsider on the French electronic music scene, as discrete as he is difficult to classify. Hailing from Nancy in the northeast of France, Fonda released a single last year on A-Traction Records (the Titanium EP) after a long sabbatical during which he was quietly ruminating, but also creating. It was only when the entire world stopped to handle a pandemic that the producer decided to come back into the spotlight with the release of an EP, and now once again with Walk Again, his third album - a way of showing that he is back on his feet, coming back to life after some suffocating moments, and moving forward.
Since his first EP in 2004, John Lord Fonda has honed his style of electronic music, particularly with his albums DeBaSer (2005) and Supersonique (2011) released on Citizen Records, the Dijon-based label founded by Vitalic. JLF's techno has grown to become dynamic, organic, melodic, dreamlike, powerful and even epic.
On Walk Again, Fonda effortlessly proves he's still at the top of his game. Featuring 11 tracks, the album includes techno bombs ("We Can’t Breathe", "Race For Nothing"), elements of breakbeat ("Little Jazz"), melodic gems ("Antartica", "Creme"), hints of new wave ("Together Again", featuring vocals by Gabriel Afathi of the group The George Kaplan Conspiracy) and a couple of quieter moments ("Walk Again", "A Descent Melody"). Some intriguing tracks are difficult to describe succinctly, such as "They Will Fight For You" and "Les Dunes d’Altaïr", both of which feature on the recent Altaïr EP, accompanied by a Damon Jee remix of the latter track. The guiding concept for the album, mixed by Christophe Monier (The Micronauts) was to produce trippier, more hypnotic techno tracks.
Describing himself as a slow but steady worker, John Lord Fonda has followed his creative process to its logical conclusion with each track, taking time to craft them finely like an artisan. The result is an album whose sounds sit somewhere between those of Jon Hopkins, Maceo Plex / Maetrik, Boards Of Canada and Max Cooper. And of course, you can still hear John Lord Fonda's passion for the intricate techno constructions of Richie Hawtin / Plastikman.
The release of the album, on the ever-faithful Citizen Records, also marks the artist's return to playing live as a solo act. John Lord Fonda is poised to rev up his machines and move the crowd with his unique, melodic techno.
