Jul 26

Jul 26 Album Review: Daphni - Fabriclive 93

Now approaching a century’s worth of entries, the Fabriclive series of mixes has become a rite of passage, a badge of honour, a status symbol, for having made an impression on the house/techno production or DJ circuit. With its 93rd entry they have enlisted Dan Snaith aka Daphni – although he’s probably best known under his ‘band’ name Caribou. On one level this is a slightly odd choice for a Fabriclive mix, as Snaith is better known for his live performances with his band, and has only released one album of techno-oriented material as Daphni; 2012’s JIAOLONG. However, as a DJ in the last few years, Daphni has become one of the most sought-after bookings at clubs and festivals around the world. This is because Snaith is known to bring his polyglot musical knowledge and abilities to his sets, dragging the sound around the houses of different genres without ever losing the pulse or thread. In which case, a Daphni entry to the Fabriclive series makes total sense.

Most of those who have had an edition in the series have used the opportunities to show off their mixing skills, plucking current club bangers from friends and contemporaries that they’ve made heavy use of in their DJ sets, and mixing them together flawlessly into an 80-minute piece. Daphni, on the other hand, has opted to go largely for tracks of his own making, previously unreleased, and stitched together here into an entirely new Daphni product. Only 4 of the 27 tracks on Fabriclive 93 are not Daphni originals, but they are still Daphni reworks. This is a both a reason for excitement and slight disappointment. Daphni has shown that he has the midas touch in his DJ sets when it comes to picking out obscure cuts and fitting them all together, so it’s a shame not to see more of that here (although the 4 edits of others’ tracks he’s included here do give you a taste of that where-the-hell-have-you-taken-me? feeling his DJ sets provide). However, it would be churlish to complain about over an hour’s worth of entirely new music from one of the most eclectic musicians currently working.

The mix starts off in auspicious fashion, the simple click pattern of ‘Face To Face’ becoming instantly infectious when the bass starts to pop and the whirring melody floats in. This becomes even more kinetic as we move into ‘Xing Tian’, whose blocks of synth and flitting percussive elements keep the energy high. The two minutes of ‘Carry On’ are slightly lighter, fluttering by; Snaith is known for his extended DJ sets, into which he has to incorporate relatively relaxed tracks to allow the dancers to catch their breaths, and ‘Carry On’ is the perfect representation of this kind of moment in a set – tickling the mind more than the muscles. From there you’re taken back into unpredictable and genre-hopping house music that makes up the bulk of the mix – but not all of it. At the end of ‘Ten Thousand’, you somehow find yourself washed up on a beatless shore, surrounded by plucked string instruments on all sides. As ever in a Daphni set,you don't know how you got there, but you don’t remain there long enough to figure it out.

When the recently released standalone single ‘Hey Drum’ lands thunderously about a quarter of the way into the mix, you know you’re in seriously deep. The sequencing of the following period gives the closest feeling that you get to the mind-melting mixing that Snaith manages in his actual DJ sets. Out from the booming ‘Hey Drum’, which has a whole 5 minutes to let itself unfurl here, comes Daphni’s edit of Luther Davis Group’s ‘You Can Be A Star’. This seemingly incongruous pair somehow slips together seamlessly in Snaith’s hands, making the listener shift unknowingly from slamming head bangs in time with the bass thump of ‘Hey Drum’, to swaying hips in time with the sprightly guitar of ‘You Can Be A Star’. Coming off the back of that is ‘Try’, which rumbles through on tough techno tyres, immediately vanquishing the mood of the previous track without being jarring at all.

Past the halfway point Daphni gets into denser and bassy sounds; the bouncing ‘Listen Up’ slips wickedly into the slick future disco of ‘Tin’, which is reminiscent of the styles touched on on Caribou’s Our Love. This is all in the lead up to his rework of Container’s ‘Dissolve’, which then forms a template for the next few tracks. The bubbling sounds of that song continue on into ‘Joli Mai’, and from there we’re comfortably back under Daphni’s spell.

In the final stretch of the mix we’re given several new Daphni tracks, uninterrupted by reworks of anyone else’s work. Trying to pin down exactly the different styles that Daphni moves through in this section of the mix is far less worthwhile or accurate than actually listening to it and moving through the motions aurally and physically, as he intended. But, from the synth-sitar inflected pomp of ‘Screaming Man Baby’, to the trumpet sample imbued house-soul of ‘vs.’, past the Middle Eastern tinged bump of ‘Always Threre’, and on to the end, Snaith is aware that this is the final stretch and he’s not going to let you stop for a second.

As an entry to the Fabriclive series, Daphni’s is a worthy one, capturing a talented party connoisseur in his most comfortable zone. As an entry to Snaith’s catalogue it is an odd one, as it is not an album but still features over 20 new Daphni productions, and therefore feels significant. This level of significance may depend upon future releases; will any of these songs appear in a more complete form in an upcoming release? Both ‘Face To Face’ and ‘Hey Drum’ have been released as standalone edits, suggesting that there are alternate versions of at least some of the tracks – but perhaps Snaith will consider this Fabriclive to have been their definitive release and is not planning to put them on a new Daphni album. Whatever he decides to do with them, at least we have them documented here on Fabriclive 93, which is, overall, a condensed but still very enjoyable facsimile of Snaith's multi-faceted, technical and tasteful dancefloor oriented abilities.