Moroni's Review of deadmau5's "album title goes here"

The summer of 2011 was the summer of electronic music for me.  I was discovering and spinning all kinds of music.  deadmau5 is one of the artists that I played with heavy rotation.

Sure, deadmau5 can pump out club hits like "Ghosts n Stuff" or "Raise Your Weapon".  (The Grammy performance of the latter song this year stole the show, in my opinion.)  But the first time I listened to "Cthulhu Sleeps" off of his "4x4=12" album, I realized that deadmau5 is more than just a deejay, more than just a guy in a funny mouse hat.  He is a composer.  And by rights, he should be right up there with Mozart or Bach.  The undulating walls of sound that he creates are awe-inspiring.  (I hear that his live shows are pretty good, too.)  He is everything that Moby tried to be, but ultimately wasn't.

I recently downloaded his latest album, ">album title goes here<".  The album starts off with the pounding grind of "Superliminal".  On this track, deadmau5 does what he does best.  He takes two rhythms that aren't quite in sync and makes them revolve around each other, slightly discordant, and yet complimenting each other.  Another example of this trippy beat  manipulation/ Doppler effect is "Take care of the proper paperwork".  This is straight up acid house.

deadmau5 has made it clear that he dislikes dubstep as a genre - and with reason.  He transcends the genre.  He has been around for a while, something unusual in the electronica world.  In other words, he has been spinning long before the likes of Skrillex.  And yet he uses elements of dubstep, like the wobble bass.  But he uses them like tools to craft it into something of superb musicianship.

The next track is "Channel 42", done with Wolfgang Garter.  It is by far my favorite track on the album.  This is deadmau5 in his true form, and it certainly makes you want to get up and dance.  The next song is "The Veldt", and it sounds like Owl City.  I am not a huge Owl City fan.  My favorite songs are "Fn Pig", "There might be coffee", and "October".

I am somewhat disappointed with the collaborations.  "Professional Griefers" is okay, but just that.  The vocals are provided by Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance.  I had higher expectations for this song, especially since I am such a huge MCR fan.  I am also really into Imogen Heap, but I was fairly disappointed by "Telemiscommunications".  And "Failbait" with Cypress Hill - I had a hard time jus tgetting past the profanity.

But all in all, this is a great album, and another example of why I truly consider myself a Mau5head.