The CLUAS Archive: 1998 - 2011

02

One of our favourite French acts are John & Jehn (right).

John & JehnWe've told you about them before - a French couple living in London and making dark, swaggering electro-rock. John plays Velvet Underground-style scuzzed-down '50s riffs on his guitar, while Jehn looks after the cool Roxy Music-esque analogue synths. We found their first album charming and simple. But then at the Solidays festival last summer we saw them live for the first time - they were sexy and sensational.

Their second album is due out at the end of March. It's called 'Time For The Devil' and is preceded by a single of the same name.

Well, it's clear that your correspondent is not the only fan of John & Jehn - their new label Naive has clearly been spending money on them. Compared to the home-made feel of their debut, 'Time For The Devil' (the song) has top-of-the-range studio production values.

However, the song is rather slight - all atmosphere, little in the way of a memorable tune. Only Jehn's Siouxsie-esque chorus vocal hook lifts this track out of the relegation places and into mid-table safety. (For his part, John sounds like Ian McCulloch and the track has that rich and doom-laden Echo and the Bunnymen vibe.)

'Time For The Devil' (the album) will be launched with a special show at La Maroquinerie in Paris on 29 March - your correspondent hopes to be there. As we said above, this pair are great live so we'll have a better impression of their new material then.

You can get a taster of John & Jehn's new album by watching this trailer for it. As for the single, here's the video for 'Time For The Devil':


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Nuggets from our archive

2001 - Early career profile of Damien Rice, written by Sinead Ward. This insightful profile was written before Damien broke internationally with the release of his debut album 'O'. This profile continues to attract hundreds of visits every month, it being linked to from Damien Rice's Wikipedia page.