Leeds-based DJ / producer Joe Morris has been making music for around 16 or 17 years.  However, he didn’t release his debut LP, Exotic Language, until 2019. Over half a decade later, he’s now ready with a full-length follow up. Cutting his teeth largely on productions that took inspiration from, and paid homage to, 1990s Italian “paradise house”, Joe’s new offering is a much more downtempo outing. On Some Kind Of Paradise, the major influence is early to mid-90s chillout. The sort of stuff that soundtracked backrooms at raves and techno soirees. The Girl In The Dream, for example, echoes acts like Enigma, and tunes such as BBG’s Snappiness. 

There are also strong nods to Jose Padilla’s classic React Cafe del Mar comps, with a sunset vibe that’s like the laidback flip side to progressive house. Gaia, one of the set’s standouts, with its sampled spoken word snippets, sits sharing a spliff alongside old favourites such as Sun Electric’s O’Locco, Sisterlove’s The Hypnotist and R-Earth.

Everything is painted / created from a similar sonic palette – a bucolic blend of breaks, chimes and bleeps, plus the odd ethereal vocal – but there’s plenty of variation in the end product. Cosmic Love and Dream Therapy both add a little acid. Diaspora Blues surfs on new age-y strings. The title track mixes Bob James’ Mardi Gras cowbell with James Brown’s Funky Drummer, fluttering flute and arms-in-the-air piano. Soul Sense is a seductive, slyly, subliminally, spirit-lifting tribute to Sade’s seminal Make Some Room. A slo-mo slice of Sci-Fi jazz-funk, further spiced with Apollo 11 transmissions. The real surprise though is the album’s closer, When Love Takes Over, which hits – with organ swells, gospel keys and Muscle Shoals guitar licks – like an outtake from Primal Scream’s Screamadelica. 

Joe Morris’ Some Kind Of Paradise is out now on Shades Of Sound.

There’s a nice mix here, of Joe at Pike’s, from a little while back.