Caribou @ Corsica Studios, London

For the 250 or so people bunkered down in Corsica Studios tonight, not one is wearing fluro paint, leg warmers, or blowing a whistle. Neither will the next hour bear any garish shouts of “oi, oi!” from Dan Snaith. But, rest assured, Caribou are here to create one of the most euphoric sets of the next 12 months.

Swim, Snaith’s fifth album (the third under the Caribou moniker) is all about dance music – and tonight it embodies a richness and variety live that it seemed would be difficult to transfer from the headphones. ‘Kaili’ shows stunning, phosphorescent lightness of touch in its techno synths, against stark drums, particularly when Snaith joins Brad Weber on the skins centre stage.

One of very few older tracks played tonight, ‘Melody Day’ surges out of the obscure fog of horns and a stale smoke machine to glorious illuminations and a psychedelic backdrop. Whereas the latest LP’s power punch, ‘Odessa’, benefits from collateral noise in the live setting, despite reducing the impact of Snaith’s Arthur Russell-like vocal: Weber’s drums fill in melodies scare noticed on record and the addition of recorder is alarming, rather than quaint.

The alternation of synths and integration of denser reverb noises produces an absolute house throb, warmth and deliberate groove for ‘Jamelia’. The rising synth in the middle is showered back down and seemingly sieved by the drum rim being struck. “If I can’t be a man, tell me what I am, tell me what I’m here for,” sings Andrew Lloyd in the background of the stage, substituting for a Born Ruffian, and hitting the tender spot Caribou lyrics often capture but rarely project.

The warm keyboard tones of ‘Sun’ gather intensity like a techno drop is in the offing rather than the dispersal which follows. Yet when the cliff-hanger drop does eventually come it’s with crescendos that build as though they are bubbles reaching the surface.

The unbridled joy in the room is such that can only come from the genius of getting thinking types to feel; by immersing them in the fluid vibes that all good dance music should embrace.