Deadmau5 Builds A Strobe-Lit Trap

xhuxk | November 21, 2008 12:00 pm

“In this world of ever evolving genres, sounds and trends, the word phenomenon is rarely if ever used,” Deadmau5’s bio unreliably asserts. Except in the case of, uh, this clearly phenomenal fellow, whose new album on Ultra, randomly titled Random Album Title, entered the Heatseekers chart at No. 65 last week, then dropped off this week. (His Clockwork EP did debut on Hot Singles Sales at No. 17 in its stead, though.) Very informative explanation of his music, from his Wiki page: “Deadmau5 (pronounced ‘Dead mouse’, birth name Joel Zimmerman) is a Progressive house and Electro house musician and DJ from Toronto, Canada. His extensive discography includes tracks such as ‘Arguru’ and ‘Not Exactly.’” Got that? You may call him Mau5y, you may call him Zimmy, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

And he’s recorded tons of music, including two songs you never heard of before. Cool! Also, he has a record label called Mau5trap. His symbol, or logo, or whatever, is indeed a mou5e, midway between Mickey Mou5e and a computer mou5e, yet seemingly not dead. (Or Mode5t, for that matter. Or On Mar5. Or, um… Dangerou5.) Seems like he must be a big deal in the world of electronifica, seeing how he’s worked with both Sasha and Digweed–not to mention Tiesto, Carl Cox, Laurent Garnier, and other notable techno people whose names I’ve actually heard before. And you’d be a big deal, too, if your on-stage props included a “tailor made giant Mau5head complete with powerful strobe lighting eyes that get (your) fans in a frenzy during (your) spellbinding sets.” Said head is clearly visible in the live video for “Ghosts N Stuff (Hard Intro Version)” (which one comment-writer insists is actually called “The Reward is Cheese” instead, so take your pick.) Well, actually, the video has two mau5 heads, oddly enough, neither particularly “giant,” and the mi5e wearing them engage in a wrestling match. Then Deadmau5 works in frightening music such as Vincent Price’s evil laughs from “Thriller” and Chopin’s “Pray For the Dead And The Dead Will Pray For You.” Very goth, not that you’d know that from the frenzied fans. Me, I kinda dig the psychedelic organ stuff that happens between the four and five minute mark. But 9:53 is really long.

Deadmau5 [MySpace]