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: