Listen: Nothing To Prove - Yehan Jehan

Nothing To Prove is the kind of multi-layered, complex and soulful pop that I just can’t resist. It starts in a way that made me instantly sit-up and take notice - loose, live sounding percussion carries you into a record that gradually opens up to show it’s sophistication. A saxophone dances across a stage established on the organic sound of Nothing To Prove’s bass line and the vocal brings a breath of life and humanity.

More than anyone else, Yehan Jehan reminds me of Dev Hynes’ work as Blood Orange. It is in Jehan’s ability to magpie his way to something that sounds not just of a different time, but a different experience of how time works. It’s thoroughly modern, and yet only because no-one has woven sounds like this together so well a new so effortlessly before now.

Yehan Jehan is a Paris-based multi-instrumentalist and producer, and Nothing To Prove comes from his new EP Earth Arrangements Vol. 2, out on Aphrodite. Yehan was born in North London, following his parents’ departure from Bosnia in the early 90s. Music runs in the family - his father a composer and his mother a piano teacher - and as such, Yehan was writing songs from the age of 12 whilst also writing scripts, making films and creating animation. Much of that has carried over into his music, with Yehan designing his own artwork and directing his own videos in addition to producing and playing everything on his EPs himself.

Aphrodite itself is also notable as being the new label from Alexander Waldron. Waldron co-founded the excellent Greco-Roman label, which was behind releases from Joe Goddard, Tirzah and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, amongst others. Vol. 2 follows on from last November’s Earth Arrangements Vol. 2, as Yehan describes:

”Vol. 2 continues from the same lineage and theme exploration as its predecessor. The title embodies the idea of the sociological tectonic plates of the planet. We’ve been aware of its natural state and history for aeons, yet our own environment is highly unpredictable and continuously challenging.”

Check out Nothing To Prove below:

Listen: Can I Call You Back? - SHY Martin

It’s been a while since SHY Martin, real name Sara Hjellström, appeared on BlackPlastic. Having graced these pages back in December 2018 with Just A Little Longer, the Swedish singer and songwriter is back with Can I Call You Back?

Starting with a bruised, delicate melodic guitar, Can I Call You Back? flows like a a stream of snatched thoughts, the lyrics and vocal performance the star of the show. Hjellström sets up and blows through little scenes that place you directly in the moment:

“I lose myself in conversations, I hear the words but I keep spacing, Outside it’s raining, it’s all I can think about. I can’t focus, no.”

This is a song that clearly depicts the experience of dealing with anxiety - those moments when you can’t quite connect in the right way and your mind can’t settle down enough to engage with whatever, or whoever, is there in the moment.

I have been the person asking, metaphorically, if I can call someone back. I have also been the person asked if they can come back later. What made Can I Call You Back stand out is the way Hjellström sounds like she is riding on the waves of something she isn’t in control of. That is exactly the moment when mental health can be hardest to manage: when you’re at the mercy of the waves and you can’t get a lock on the horizon.

Follow SHY Martin: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ShyMartinMusic/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/shy.martin/ Spotify: spoti.fi/2Da89xa Apple Music: apple.co/2VKS9ck

Premiere: Where Did All The Love Go - RYAL

Where Did All The Love Go sidles in with a minimal combination of electronic percusssion and processed vocals, a minimal slice of melancholic electronic pop. Vocalist and keyboardist Jacque Ryal gently grieves as producer Aaron Nevezie applies a veneer of cold polished glass atop of her emotions.

This is a track about the seeming evaporation of a love lost… Something that somehow once seemed so real, alive and tangible, yet one day just isn’t there any more.

The track evolved as the duo experimented with their equipment, as Jacque describes:

”The song grew out of my live vocal processing playing off Aaron’s vintage Prophet 5 synth chord progression. A modular 909 bass drum lays down the low end while an occasional cameo from the Buchla Music Easel keeps the sonic landscape developing. Out of the darkness of the ominous verses we found ourselves drawn to the contrast of an pop anthemic chorus with layers of vocal looping and a wall of electronic percussion.”

The result is a track that is both immediately accessible, and experimental enough to hold attention. The humanity appears to leak through the cracks despite the cool aloof exterior, Nevezie’s synths stabbing like pangs of loneliness.

Check out Where Did All The Love Go below:

WHERE DID ALL THE LOVE GO BY: RYAL (Jacque Ryal & Aaron Nevezie) PRODUCED & MIXED BY: AARON NEVEZIE MASTERED BY: ALEX DETURK RECORDED,MIXED & MASTERED AT: THE BUNKER STUDIO, BROOKLYN, NY

Listen: Slow Down - GRAE

Slow Down is the latest single from Toronto alternative pop artist GRAE.

With an indie R&B feel and a smoky feel to her vocal, GRAE gives Slow Down a sultry, moody sound. The verse has a downbeat, earnest feel that carries this straight into a chorus that smacks of delirium. “I’ve gotta slow down...”, Grae states, whilst ultimately only further stoking her obsession.

The production has a wonderfully understated feeling - a series of simple piano chords, light percussion and a few additional flourishes are all that is applied. That restraint contrasts to the song’s lyrics, which feel high-stakes and betray the sense of being out-of-control.

Discussing the song, GRAE says:

”Slow Down was fun to write because I had never explored this kind of topic before. I find, as a woman, sometimes it’s hard to express your wants and desires, in fear of being judged or shamed. So I wanted to touch on this subject to get more in tune with that side of myself.”

Check out Slow Down below.

Premiere: Chemical Odysseys - B.A.D.A.

Chemical Odysseys is the brand new track from NPR-featured electronic indie pop duo B.A.D.A, taken from their upcoming album Exile.

B.A.D.A are Brazilian artist & producer Pedro Cesario and Brooklynite multi-instrumentalist and producer Carey Clayton. Together they spent 2019 pursuing their ambition of conceptually deep music that differentiates itself within the crowded alternative electronic pop space.

Chemical Odysseys is a song that taps into a universal, and sadly deeply pertinent, anxiety - the fear of dying alone. Talking to the personal experience of loneliness that inspired the song, the band said:

”I lived for years in a passive state of psychedelia, trying to search for things that would allow me to stay up. Ultimately succumbing to my own loneliness and accepting it as a part of who i am is what made clean… That's part of what the world is experiencing now, I guess.”

Pulling together warm electronics, emotive vocals and psychedelic, melodic flourishes, Chemical Odysseys has a lovely, blissful feel to it. The sounds washes over you gently, creating a sense of acceptance and easiness in the listener. As it builds, the bass picks up the pace a little and the production conjures up a feeling of speed, of lightness, the audible equivalent of letting go and finding peace.