- Dan Snaith's decision to fill his recent Daphni Fabriclive mix entirely with unreleased material of his own played to his strengths. The Canadian artist has been spinning under his dance music guise since the early '10s, but he's been more renowned for the music he makes—as both Daphni and Caribou—than for his DJing. Even so, Fabriclive 93 was destined to be judged against similarly constructed mixes by Ricardo Villalobos, Shackleton and Omar-S, which are among the strongest in the series. Snaith said Villalobos' especially was a big inspiration, although they're very different beasts. While Snaith's mix leapt enthusiastically around a wonky disco centre, the minimal techno sound of Villalobos' edition had the self-contained feel of a proper album.
Perhaps Joli Mai was conceived with that in mind—11 tracks from Fabriclive 93 feature on the LP alongside a full-length version of "Vulture" from Midland's Fabriclive 94. That's good news for any DJs who fancy using "Joli Mai" to give their sets some extra bounce, or closing one in the same way Snaith did on Fabriclive 93 with the beautifully woozy end-of-nighter "Life's What You Make It." That's possibly the only reason to buy Joli Mai if you don't already have Fabriclive 93, which has more tunes and works a little better as a listening experience.
Even so, Joli Mai covers a wide range of styles. "Carry On" and "Medellin" are strong deep house tracks. "Face To Face"'s stripped-back bass and drums show his love of jerky funk. "Hey Drum"'s shameless rave breakdown is pure sugar-rush fun. It might have been nice to have full versions of Fabriclive 93 tracks like the brassy disco stomp of "Vs," but otherwise there's little here to complain about—especially for those already won over by Daphni's debut album, 2012's JIAOLONG. The Fabriclive mix was much more than the sum of its parts, but to have some of its best tracks available in this way makes for both a solid album and a chance to wonder what you could build with them yourself.
Tracklist01. Poly
02. Face To Face
03. Carry On
04. Vulture
05. Xing Tian
06. Vikram
07. Tin
08. The Truth
09. Hey Drum
10. Medellin
11. Joli Mai
12. Life's What You Make It