Daphni's fourth studio album Butterfly at first picks up where his last album, 2022's Cherry left off. Though a sizeable gap for Daphni releases, between Cherry and Butterfly however of course sits Honey, the latest Caribou album and one that saw the more instantaneous and dancefloor leaning traits of Daphni peaking through the cracks more than ever before. This blurring of the lines leads to an intriguing collaboration in Butterfly's lead single "Waiting So Long" (feat. Caribou). An unlikely duo -- in that both artists are the same man, Dan Snaith -- it is not so much an identity crisis, ego trip, or the result of a chemical spill in the Snaith laboratory. It's simply a track that Snaith felt for the first time belongs to both aliases, and might appeal to fans of both. Daphni music has always been Snaith's way of hitting directly to the core of the dancefloors he spends so much of his time playing to, and those dancefloors have been steadily expanding as his name grows, with the music following suit. This album however also draws from further back with a definite kinship to the very first Daphni album, the invigorating bag of ideas that was Jiaolong. Butterfly is a showcase of the wonderful variety and surprising twists and turns that made that album such an exciting new prospect and that still to this day make Snaith such an intriguing DJ. There are more heavy hitters here, tracks that fill those dancefloors better than anyone, like "Clap Your Hands" which picks up the energy of "Sad Piano House" and flips it, exposing the gritty and intoxicating underbelly of Snaith's hitmaking side, while retaining the playful urgency that runs through all of his work of late. Meanwhile "Hang"'s comic-strip horns are unpinned by gleeful force, unrelenting and thrillingly unshakeable. Elsewhere though comes a clutch of other tunes that might creep out somewhere more off the beaten path, a path Snaith has never stopped seeking in amongst his larger billings. "Lucky" is squirmy and elusively intoxicating, "Invention" skitters down meandering, inviting corridors, "Talk To Me" grumbles and broods in the murk, and "Miles Smiles" could roll on endlessly, so confident in its groove. Right from the inception of the Daphni alias, the thrill of trying stuff out, pushing at the boundaries has always been there and on Butterfly is present in all its twists and turns.
