Joris Voorn is well known as a producer, like many Dutchmen, he makes techno with a nod to Detroit. Voorn first pricked up ears in 2004 with the release of his two ‘The Lost Memories’ EPs which included the big dancefloor cuts ‘Missing’ and ‘Incident’, the latter of which became one of the most hammered anthems of the year. Voorn’s debut album ‘Future History’ spanned house, old skool Detroit, acid techno and even some ambient landscapes, and his most recent release is a remix of Paul Kalkbrenner’s ‘Press On’ on Bpitch Control (which appears in his top ten of course!)

Aside from his own bleeps and bloops, Voorn also spins records. Last year he mixed his debut comp for Belgian club Fuse which included Detroit legends Robert Hood, Carl Craig and Jeff Mills alongside more minimal outings from Sleeparchive, Marc Houle and Matthew Dear. After a string of dates in 2005 performing live at festivals such as Sonar in Barcelona, Wire in Tokyo and Exit in Serbia, this year Voorn has been concentrating on DJing.

RA chased Joris Voorn all the way to Rotterdam to hold him up for his thoughts. What rotters we are.

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Deetron – The Afterlife [Music Man]

Joris: “I think this is definitely one of the best records of the year. I got it from Deetron maybe half a year ago and since then I’ve played it every single time I play. It’s seriously amazing. You could call it minimal but it’s also one of those records that’s also a great techno tune. There’s a voice on top done by Paris The Black Fu from the Detroit Grand Pubahs. The vocal on top is very haunting with sounds coming in and then there’s a massive break. That’s basically the track but it’s totally insane and people go crazy whenever I play it.” [listen]

Cobblestone Jazz – Dump Truck [Wagon Repair]

Joris: “I don’t always play Mathew Jonson’s stuff. I buy a lot of his records but then I never end up playing them for some reason. But this one is simply amazing. It’s very freestyle. Almost P-funk techno. It’s very very funky and very leftfield as well.”

Minilogue – Ahck [Wir]

Joris: “I discovered these guys a few weeks ago when I was checking Beatport. I think they used to make progressive. But just like all the other progressive guys they got bored of the tribal and got into minimal. These guys actually succeed pretty well in making stuff that mixes the melodic part of progressive with more minimal beats. It’s like Border Community style techno, really beautiful. There’s also a crazy break in this track.”

Paul Kalkbrenner – Press On (Joris Voorn Remix) [Bpitch Control]

Joris: “I’ve been playing this for half a year since I made it. I really enjoyed making it because I think the original was already a really really beautiful track. Basically I took some elements from another track by Paul that really fit in with ‘Press On’ and I made the remix. It’s like a trip. It’s only at the end that the strings from the original come in. I started working on the remix six months before I finished it. I basically edited some percussion and did the arrangement a bit differently. He’s a really cool guy that makes amazing music although it’s very German in that it’s not funky in any way. It goes back to the early nineties trance sound. “

Alejandro Lopez – Pisces [Minimise]

Joris: “I got this last week. I played it for the first time this week and it’s really amazing. It’s also minimalistic. For some reasons when the Spanish make minimal it’s a bit more powerful than the German stuff. The German guys make it a bit more fragile. The Spanish minimal is a bit more Mediterranean, more colourful, more driving. There are a few of these guys making this kind of music. It’s also a bit leftfield minimal because there are a lot of different elements in it. Some parts of the track are minimal, some parts are more like Mathew Jonson. It’s a bit like Cobblestone Jazz actually. It’s very good as DJ tool. It has a very live feel and isn’t static, which is a nice thing.”

2000 and One – Tropical Melon [Cocoon]

Joris: “This is quite an interesting track. It’s also a very good tool. If you use it in combination with a looping machine in a DJ set you can do amazing stuff with it because it’s a very loopy track and it has these crazy, almost ravey synth pads on top. People always recognise it for some reason. It was released on the ‘Cocoon F’ compilation.” [listen]

Rejected – Rejected Music 001 [Rejected]

Joris: “Again shameless self-promotion. This is a track by Rejected, which is me and my friend Edwin. We are starting up our own label so it’s unreleased at the moment. But I have been playing it a lot since it was finished. At the moment one track is called ‘Cliché because in a way itts like a clichh. There are a million of these kinds of tracks around already but I think this one is a bit different because itts actually a lot more groovy than a lot of minimal stuff. Itts more techno than minimal basically. Again a very driving track but with a minimal approach. The other side is called SL33 at the moment. Itts a bit housey, tech house with a very strong bassline with some synth stabs. I think itts a nice track to play. On the label, the first track will be released in early December with the aim of just releasing a few tracks per year. Itts good to do things by yourself.. [listen]

Heiko Laux Earth Kitt

Heiko Laux Eartha Kitt [A Speak]

Joris: I was very surprised by this because it brings me back to the days of Souldancerr. That was one of his famous ones, very deep and driving, a very bassy track from about 1998. And this basically goes back to that time. Itts a very minimalist approach to techno but very driving and very full-sounding. Itts a really good track. I donnt know if itts really dancefloor or peaktime music but itts really beautiful and very well-produced..

Antena Camino del Soul (Joakim Mix) [Permanent Vacation]

Joris::This is a very nice of tech house track in the style of Ame since everybodyys basically using their build-ups with synth stabs. So this is a nice track. It could have been an Ame remix. Itts not as nicely produced as Ame does but it has these stabby synths which at some points make up a melody as well. Itts very fragile sounding, also very minimal. Itts very deep. Itts very musical. Itts a bit like a song almost..

Joris Voorn Coming from the Shower after a Late Night with a Failed Date [Green]

Joris: IIve been playing this for almost a year now. I played it at Fuse in Belgium almost exactly a year ago and no one had heard this track before and it was like the best moment of the whole night. Since then itts been a highlight of my sets. The title is not autobiographical. It comes from a book I was reading at the time, Underworldd by Don Delillo. If you actually look at the whole phrase and how it fits in there it doesnnt really make any sense! But it looks a bit different. I played the A-side MPX3099 in Belgium but to be honest recently IIve been playing the B-side a lot. Itts one of the techno tracks I made about three years ago. It was actually supposed to be released on UK label Religion but they didnnt think it was special enough so I just kept it on the shelf..