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Review done by Steve Anderson, UK
Well if you love him, hate him, or have an indifferent view of him - everyone has now well and truly heard of DeadMau5 over the last couple of years. Joel Zimmerman, a Canadian who adopted the name DeadMau5 after he found one in his home PC - has become one of the biggest names in the EDM industry recently with huge support from the likes of Tiesto and Armin van Buuren. So here is the album, twelve tracks of his picks to showcase what he's currently all about - and as someone who isn't as aware as others on what the DeadMau5 sound exactly is, I'm now going to sit and find out properly.
The opening track "Sometimes Things Get, Whatever" is a very laid back sparse Progressive House (or is it Hau5?) track, which I had almost missed the fact that it runs into track 2 "Complications". The magic of the tracks so far seem to be brought with subtle interest and changes along the way, in the sense that kind of tricks the ear - kind of like not being fully aware of why it's interesting. Soundscape type stuff, which is very clever to pull off. Touches of melody arrive in track 3 "Slip", a dreamy and floaty track with some lovely pads and synths - which then drops into a nice deep bassline and swung sparse percussion. Some lovely atmospherics in here, and a few oddly thrown in notes prick the ears up further - there are also some lovely strings and chords in the latter part of the track. "Some Kind Of Blue" takes a minimal form before the gently melodic "Brazil" arrives, it's then followed by the familiar "Alone With You" and "I Remember" - which for me has what I would call the trademark DeadMau5 bassline sound. It's a really cool track, and with a cracking vocal and gorgeous melody too.
Thereafter follows two versions of "Faxing Berlin", firstly a Piano Acoustica version before the Original track takes over - with a beautifully smooth transition between the two as may be expected. Next up is the track which I have only just learned is the biggest selling track ever on Beatport in any genre "Not Exactly" - which I am also familiar with, and is again a soothing well produced downtempo number. The penultimate track is "Arguru", another track with some beautiful piano and string pieces - paired with gorgeous chords and melody early on. The track takes a meaner approach into the midway of proceedings with a tough distorted lead, and ends nicely by running into "So There I Was" - the closing track with again a slightly tougher feel, and some heavily swung percussion elements to provide its groove. It has some nice sidechaining breaths, and the plucks I recognised earlier are evident here - and the breaths fade to close out the album.
I hadn't originally guessed that the album would be mixed, but it all segued together perfectly. The mood was very laid back throughout, and the production was top drawer. I love the feel of certain tracks on here, and others whilst really well done didn't quite hit my Trance buttons - but that's just my makeup I suppose. If you like the DeadMau5 sound in general then go get this, I will definitely be giving it another few listens - inbetween the uplifting and driving melodic stuff that I base my diet on..
All in all a great first album once again.
1. Sometimes Things Get, Whatever
2. Complications
3. Slip
4. Some Kind Of Blue
5. Brazil (2nd Edit)
6. Alone With You
7. I Remember
8. Faxing Berlin (Piano Acoustic Version)
9. Faxing Berlin
10. Not Exactly
11. Arguru
12. So There I Was
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