Daphni – Jiaolong – 2x LP Vinyl

Dan ‘Caribou’ Snaith’s enormously successful house project Daphni deservedly gets its own album across which to express itself. Daphni started out as an excuse to re-edit and beef up afrobeat and outernational obscurities for peaktime DJ use, and that rough ‘n ready, functionalist spirit persists here, even on some of the slightly more polished cuts – but it’s not just about inserting a 4/4 kick, it’s also about unusual textural fusions which happen before your very ears: for instance the zig-zagging, Belgian-style electro synths of ‘Yes, I Know’ peeling back to reveal salty, funked-up horns and beaming soul vocals. Snaith nails it best when he pursues an off-road psychedelic tip: witness the lysergic organ loops and dusty drum breaks powering his re-lick of Cos Ber Zam’s ‘Ne Noya’, or the pure percussion work-out of ‘Pairs’, or even the wigged-out mnml crunch of ‘Jiao’. This fella knows how to keep a crowd entertained, and this LP effectively makes public his cache of secret weapons.

A1 Daphni – Yes, I Know 4:27
A2 Cos-Ber-Zam, Daphni – Cos-Ber-Zam – Ne Noya (Daphni Mix) 5:37
B1 Daphni – Ye Ye 6:08
B2 Daphni – Light 5:20
C1 Daphni – Pairs 5:40
C2 Daphni – Ahora 5:47
D1 Daphni – Jiao 4:36
D2 Daphni – Springs 4:21
D3 Daphni – Long 6:02