7/10

After returning earlier this year to his techno moniker Daphni for the latest FabricLive mixtape, which was made entirely of his unreleased material, producer Dan Snaith clearly missed making music under his other guise as he releases the official sophomore album 'Joli Mai'. Following on from his much-loved 2012 debut 'Jiaolong', this new material sees him adopt a far more minimal direction with more focus on the vibe than the sound itself.

Dan Snaith's other project Caribou is easy enough to understand as it is more about the experimental side to electronic music, whereas Daphni was always about the big beats and basslines. But 'Joli Mai' seems to sit somewhere in the middle of those intentions. While it certainly has more of a dancefloor feel than his Caribou work, it seems to tread those same avenues as LCD Soundsystem and Four Tet, where it lives in a womb of minimal repetition that will get your feet moving but hardly rip the skin from your ears.

While it is certainly separated from the direction of his debut under the name, 'Joli Mai' seems to think of itself as the new wave of club-ready productions. Great grooves and some interesting style within the material, it still bangs just as hard as the first Daphni release.