Music > Album Reviews

Deadmau5 // At Play

15/05/13

DJ du jour, Deadmau5 (pronounced Dead Mouse), has been lighting up dancefloors for the last couple of years, receiving a prestigious Juno award with co-producer Melleefresh and being the most talked about tip from heavyweights like Tiesto and Armin Van Burren. After his 2008 album, Random Album Title, Ontario born Deadmau5, or Joel Zimmerman as he’s known to his gramps, he gives us an insight into early Mau5 activity with a repackaged and released compliation of 10 unmixed tracks – mostly his – that were the basis for what his since become a Mau5trap for house fans globally. With chart friendly sounding ‘Hey Baby’, the dirty vocals are reminiscent of Miss Kittin or Princess Superstar and just as nasty, with ‘Sex, Lies, Audiotape’ also carrying that mantle. Club hit, 'Faxing Berlin’ is a strong inclusion to the album, as one of the tracks that helped the fledgling DJ shoot to fame. The album isn’t varied enough in pace to keep me fully switched on, but as tracks on their own, they are a tasty slice of dirty-techy-electro house and if they cite the early workings of Deadmau5, then his later work must be hugely anticipated by Mau5 House fans worldwide.

7/10 Tiny Dancer