3 out of 5 

Label: Analogical Force

Produced by: Valentin Voiron

An appealing addition to Analogical Force’s IDM-heavy stable: Voiron brings a brand of techno that’s adjacent to that scene, but more club-friendly; like a house mix with surprisingly nuanced production. And that’s a lot of fun! …But also limited, given the artist’s penchant for pulling beats and effects from familiar sources. 

When Ingeniur du Son goes hard, Voiron’s work is at its most impressive. Opener Call Me Voiron has a DMX Krew simplicity, channeled through modern-sounding equipment, and showing off the way the artist fleshes out a dancefloor banger with flourishes to its varying percussion, and smart touches to reverb and fade. Tracks like this popup here and there on the album: Voiron et Marie Denise is another grabbing example – sweaty momentum and subtle but funky enhancements to its four-on-the-floor mold. When you hear that stuff, it’s in a league of its own. 

But the majority of the songs come across as either ‘Voiron plus (x),’ – where that core club beat has glitchy IDM drum rushes attached to it, or perhaps some hip-hop elements, sounding like an affectation rather than something unique – or a kind of middling version of the bangers, turning club toward groove, but not necessarily enhancing the track much beyond that tonal change, and pulling from a somewhat predictable bag of beats and breaks. While all of this is very enjoyable, and certainly keeps your head bobbing, it too easily fades from the foreground, the subtleties maybe too subtle to overwhelm some repetitiveness, and blown away by the tracks where Voiron goes all in. 

Lots of potential, and a nice changeup for AF, even if the overall release is imperfect.