Jiaolong

*Throughout Caribou's ongoing world tour, Dan has been hitting club nights in each city, DJing into the wee hours in search of that sweet spot. 'DJs have the potential to blindside you,' Snaith says. 'During the time I was making the Caribou album Swim, I'd fallen back in love with moments in small, dark clubs when a DJ puts on a piece of music that not only can you not identify, but that until you heard it you could not have conceived of existing.'*Inspired to work in a completely different way-setting aside the meticulous compositional rigors and musical layers that underpin Caribou songs-Dan Snaith-as-Daphni reaches out for a more feminine, fluid energy and seeks instant gratification. 'Daphni tracks are rough and spontaneous,' he explains. 'They're about working fast and intuitively, capturing the manic energy needed to start a track one afternoon, have it finished, and be playing it in a club that night.'*Daphni's debut was a re-imagining of Cortney Tidwell's 'Watusii' in 2009. Wrapping her vocal in a gloriously layered and tripped out 14-minute bundle of joy that snuck up gently, grew relentlessly, and left listeners dizzy and euphoric, this musical template has been locked in place ever since. Who says man cannot squeeze soul from machines?*Acclaimed remixes of Hot Chip and Emeralds have followed, while the first proper Daphni track was a split 12-inch with Four Tet in the form of 'Ye Ye,' a subby and plundering tune that positively screams for an open window to cool down. It was and still is a blistering opening gambit, as was the follow-up 12-inch 'Ne Noya,' his mix of Cos-Ber-Zam with its superb aquatic rumblings. This release also featured the acidic soulful throb of 'Yes, I Know' and the Afro-centric synth-haze that is 'Jiao.'*'Electronic instruments are notoriously uncontrollable, unpredictable, and recalcitrant!' Snaith says ruefully. 'I've been building a modular synthesizer, which plays a prominent role on this album. It growls or screams whe[was]