Joris Voorn's second album sounds like it could have been made at any stage over the past fifteen years, but that doesn't make it a classic. The opening salvo is promising – 'Revolution', 'A Thousand Lost Souls' and 'To Embody' fall pleasingly – and as you might expect - somewhere between Kenny Larkin and Funk D'Void: deep, atmospheric, emotive techno. Exactly what Voorn has built his (deserved) reputation on. But at the end of the dreamy 'To Embody', alarm bells start ringing, right after the appearance of the dreaded chimes – a staple in the world of irritating jazz and sure sign that self-indulgence can't be that far away. And it isn't.
'The Deep' is an example of what happens when the melodic techno template goes wrong – the stabbing chords are perfect, but a key-shifting bassline pushes it into decidedly dodgy territory. Things start to unravel with the tedious 'Early Bird', which marries a filtered Sneak/Bangalter-style disco loop with skittish breakbeats. The 'jazz' influence crops up intermittently throughout – but for the most part, it feels like a pastiche instead of innovation, more cocktail than Carl Craig. 'May The Days Remain Aimless' takes it one step further, sounding too close for comfort to the interminable fusion pap LTJ Bukem and his mates churned out under the Earth banner for years.
But – this being Voorn - there are moments of crystalline, melodic clarity: the pacey, Basic Channel-referencing 'No Revolution' is excellent, the string-soaked, acid-tinged 'Lucid Dreams' offers a welcome electro respite, while the symphonic 'Dirty Thoughts' is engaging – apart from the irritating old-school-aping vocal stabs (which, bafflingly, crop up a number of times of the record). The arrival of rip-roaring former single 'Mpx309' is a tantalising reminder of what goes right when Voorn moves away from his signature sound. And while we're at it, the constant fills – those two-minute ambient doodles – are just irritating. And it's too long, too clean. The Dutch producer deserves praise for attempting to produce a record that stays true to his principals (witness the way he uses the Rejected pseudonym for his clubbier/trendier outings) but 'From A Deep Place' is just too much of a good thing.
Buy Joris Voorn - From a Deep Place at
  
Tracklist: Joris Voorn - From a Deep Place
01. Revelation
02. A Thousand Lost Souls
03. To Embody
04. The Deep
05. Early Bird
06. Another Place
07. My People
08. May The Days Be Aimless
09. Lucid Dreams
10. Minor
11. This Is Our Fiction
12. Dirty Thoughts
13. When It Became Real
14. MPX 309
15. Listen
16. No Revolution
17. Decay
18. When it was Day We Made it Night
19. Blank | 
