One man, a gigantic mouse helmet and songs about ghosts and robots. It can only mean one thing – deadmau5 is back with a new album.
Truthfully, it took me more than a short while to realise that “Dead Mouse” wasn’t actually “Dead Mau Five” – you’d think the gigantic mouse headpiece he wears when Djing would be a “dead” giveaway. Thought I’d get the bad puns out of the way early on so this can be a more serious review.
Still, along with his artist name, deadmau5′s track and album titles have hardly been the typical sort of “Let’s Go” and “Shake It” titles that the House genre has promoted in the course of its 20-odd year development. Upon first listening to For Lack Of A Better Name, I almost expected a Dutch Hardcore sort of vibe – this album begins with an epic 1-minute snare drum solo. In true form, Deadmau5 is happy to push another boundary just for the sake of being a bit filthy – and quite frankly, it sounds fantastic. Expect the typical drop into mis-timed minimal techy nonsense, and depending on your taste, you’ll either be jumping and “wheeeyyy!”-ing with a can of Red Stripe in your hand or wallowing in every inevitable anti-climax.
If there’s one thing that deadmua5 does pull off, it’s being needlessly catchy and fun, whilst still seeming serious enough to be, er – taken seriously. It baffles me why Moar Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff is lined up one track before Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff, but trying to make sense of deadmau5 is a lot like buying a chocolate fireguard – pointless. Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff is the first vocal track to hit For Lack Of A Better Name, the vocal itself reminiscent of Pendulum’s “In Silico,” making use of autotuning and lyrics that seem to have a ultimatum. Backed with a Super Nintendo-Style organ, pulsating random synths and super-compressed drums, Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff is definitely a stand-out track. deadmau5′s drums sure do thump, and there seems to be an amazing depth to his tracks that just gets wider and wider the louder you play it. It’s quite amazing, and a refreshing break from purely brickwalled electronic music – there seems to be a large dynamic range to deadmau5′s music, and although it is loud and it doesn’t half bang – which is no doubt its primary function – you can’t help but appreciate the huge depth that spans an entire album.
The title track, For Lack Of A Better Name (funnily enough,) is probably not the anthem you usually expect from a title track. For one, the track itself is absolutely filthy – I couldn’t help but find myself tapping along on the woofer of my monitors in time with the kick drum just to overdrive it a bit – there is something spine-chillingly dark and secretly destructive about the rhythm of this track, it’s almost contagious. Throw in a few heavy-duty synth builds and yet more random noises, and suddenly the track completely drops into a massive string ensemble. Perhaps, after all, For Lack Of A Better Name is the anthem that title tracks usually are – and maybe this has thwarted deadmau5′s attempt to break convention – or maybe he meant for this to happen all along. Maybe, indeed, For Lack Of A Better Name is just one huge contradiction. Or maybe I’m reading into it too much.
Strobe, the final track, may just prove how flexible deadmau5 is as an artist. Beautiful, slow-building, crystal melodies that seem to interweave and counteract each other seamlessley, coupled with the most delicate subtle details – this track would never be out of place in the last 5 minutes of a cult movie – just cinematic enough, but honest and emotive. 3 minutes 30 seconds in, things start to speed up and a repetitive synth line emerges – and it carries on from there, building endlessley, the interweaving melodies continuing – how a raw sawtooth synth can be made to sound so hypnotizing is beyond me. And, honestly, 7 minutes in, I think I threw my arms in the air just a little bit when the whole thing dropped – It might be important to note that I’m at home on my own at the moment. Strobe always keeps your ears on edge, surprises you throughout, and if anything, does what good Tech House does best – to get you up and dance and stop giving a crap if people are looking at you. Is the 10 minute track time justified? Absolutely.
It’s not a bad listen, overall, but For Lack Of A Better Name is more than likely an acquired taste – chances are you will be taking the best tracks from here and whacking them on your mp3 player rather than giving the whole thing a start-to-finish every time you fancy it. Whether you’re a seasoned tech-head or want to test the waters of Tech House but don’t know where to start, For Lack Of A Better Name may just be a safe bet either way. If anything, you can’t say it’s uninteresting, and great fun – but maybe in smaller doses than a full album.
Download “Strobe” by deadmau5 here
Check out the entire album on Spotify here
For lack of a better name can be downloaded from beatport or the CD can be purchased from Play.com
Strobe is an absolutely amzazing track, can get enought at the mo…
Strobe – Wow. When I first heard it, I thought it took to long to get into. But upon a second and third dose, I was completely mesmerised. Such an awesome track, unbelievable. In fact, it may just be my favourite track of all time.. It tells a story without lyrics, a MASTERPIECE, unlike your typical manufactured pop crap, with the same drum beats, claps and clicks.. Strobe is perfect. Wouldn’t change anything. When I listen to it, I usually hesitate if don’t have time to listen to the whole 10 minutes of it..