Take that Deadmau5

Read that last night and it's spot on.

Shame, Deadmau5 produced some good stuff a few years ago, and I was impressed by a couple of his sets i saw, then it all went to sh*t after 'For lack of a better name'.
 
Dont think the criticism its aimed primarily at Deadmau himself....more the people who buy his music...
 
Reviews don't come much more spot on than that. That is Deadmau5 and large parts of the North American EDM scene dissected right down the middle.

It's house music that Frankie Knuckles wouldn't understand, but Finchy from The Office would get straight away.
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Perhaps Deadmau5 appeals to a middle-American audience traditionally resistant to dance music because he seems to have taken a genre born out of a largely black, largely gay club scene and ruthlessly expunged any lasting sonic evidence of its birthplace.
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Thank you and good night!
 
Bez said:
Dont think the criticism its aimed primarily at Deadmau himself....more the people who buy his music...
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I agree. He's a bit of an odd one though. I think the album is actually alright. The version of The Vedlt on the album is quite good as there seems to be a thousand and one different versions on youtube at the minute.

Professional Griefers could have had much better production on the guitars. More beef behind them would have been much, much better.

There Might Be Coffee is also a decent track. I've likened it to when Mylo released Destroy Rock & Roll. You wouldn't nesacerily want to hear these tracks in a club but overall they aren't a bad listen.

Let downs point straight at the 8 minute quietness of Take Care Of The Paperwork and the god awful (it took a few listens) Failbait with Cypress Hill.

Like a lot of artists out there he should probably stick to making music and not headlines about stuff that doesn't always matter. Fair enough the lad has opinions and somewhere out there some people obviously care.
 
Bez - I think you've miss-read it slightly. Saying an artist holds their audience in contempt is musical put down of the highest regard. He gets completely taken to pieces for the attention seeking prat that he is.
 
mashednlovingit said:
Bez - I think you've miss-read it slightly. Saying an artist holds their audience in contempt is musical put down of the highest regard. He gets completely taken to pieces for the attention seeking prat that he is.
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Good or bad....its contrived media publicity. Simple as. I wouldn't wast much time over it.
 
Fairly useless article written by someone who's mind has clearly been made up about him for years and just jumped at the chance of an 'album review' to put his dislikes about him to print.
 
djedwardsmith said:
Fairly useless article written by someone who's mind has clearly been made up about him for years and just jumped at the chance of an 'album review' to put his dislikes about him to print.
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The author of the piece is one of the best writers about music around (imo). You only need to read a few comments by Deadmau5 to see he has no idea about dance music's past. I say this as someone who kinda liked 'I Remember' a few years back, but the man in the mouse mask has revealed himself as ever more clueless.
 
Johnny Vodka said:
The author of the piece is one of the best writers about music around (imo). You only need to read a few comments by Deadmau5 to see he has no idea about dance music's past. I say this as someone who kinda liked 'I Remember' a few years back, but the man in the mouse mask has revealed himself as ever more clueless.
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He very well might be, but this specific article serves no purpose other than to air his own grievances about deadmau5. Hence why half the article has nothing to do with the album he's meant to be reviewing and moreso just attempting (rightly or wrongly) to criticise him.

He has no idea about dance music's past. Right. And? Does he speak from a platform that suggests he thinks that he does? I could understand it if he was openly coming out and saying he's right, everyone is wrong and he knows all (a.l.a a certain Sneak :p)
 
djedwardsmith said:
He has no idea about dance music's past. Right. And? Does he speak from a platform that suggests he thinks that he does?
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If below correctly represents what he's said, then yes.

He took Madonna to task for the scarcely imaginable crime of mentioning drugs at a rave, suggesting it was akin to "mentioning slavery at a blues concert". It was redolent, he said, of the days when "a dark veil" hung over dance music, before he and others had "taken EDM so goddamn far". By this "dark veil" period, he presumably meant the 35 years when dance music had to content itself with merely providing a glorious, euphoric voice for disenfranchised minorities, being a genuine countercultural phenomenon, repeatedly revolutionising music and changing the face of popular culture. This, of course, was before it found its true, noble calling: soundtracking Las Vegas pool parties and providing music for gurning frat boys to mosh to.
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"taken EDM so goddamn far" :confused: :rolleyes: :spank:
 
djedwardsmith said:
He very well might be, but this specific article serves no purpose other than to air his own grievances about deadmau5. Hence why half the article has nothing to do with the album he's meant to be reviewing and moreso just attempting (rightly or wrongly) to criticise him.
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Really don't see why that is a problem if a) the criticism is well reasoned and b) it strikes a chord with readers. After all, that is the writers prerogative.

You may feel cheated out of detailed descriptions of the album in question; I was just thoroughly entertained by a number of well-written and insightful observations that sum up the resurgence of dance music in today's mainstream. Totally fair criticism (if we're viewing it as a criticism) in my eyes.
 
Deadmau5 has gone crap, and he is making music for his market

Why the hell did he get that Gerard way to feature on proffesional griefers? it was a better track without him on it!

I actually like the Veldt and FN pig has a good intro
 
Johnny Vodka said:
If below correctly represents what he's said, then yes.



"taken EDM so goddamn far" :confused: :rolleyes: :spank:
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Which I believe was said in reference to cleaning up it's image in the eyes of the mainstream. The EDM term was just used for the sake of his audience to understand. I personally don't see anything wrong with that, he wasn't saying it as if he and others had gone and improved upon previous artists and he was above them, it was in relation to a relative decrease in the % of people who automatically relate any sort of dance music with drug binges.


Phil_Dicko said:
Really don't see why that is a problem if a) the criticism is well reasoned and b) it strikes a chord with readers. After all, that is the writers prerogative.
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He's well within his rights to post a rebuttal of deadmau5's comments on a blog, even maybe ask for column space to do so with his paper; but half of that review could have been sat pre-written for weeks waiting for the relevant time to post it, which I think is wrong.

You may feel cheated out of detailed descriptions of the album in question; I was just thoroughly entertained by a number of well-written and insightful observations that sum up the resurgence of dance music in today's mainstream. Totally fair criticism (if we're viewing it as a criticism) in my eyes.
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Don't disagree with that at all, it's just the platform he used to voice it that I disagree with.

Bones said:
Deadmau5 has gone crap, and he is making music for his market

Why the hell did he get that Gerard way to feature on proffesional griefers? it was a better track without him on it!

I actually like the Veldt and FN pig has a good intro
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Not really been a fan of any of his songs with vocals tbh, Veldt is the exception. His best work is all purely instrumental and that's even more true when he's working with mugs like Gerrard Way.
 
Robo said:
Was he ever anything but...
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When he started he was original and different a fresh and unique sound....I think now hes just a victim of his own success and dislikes the industry that he has become part of.
 
Bez said:
When he started he was original and different a fresh and unique sound....I think now hes just a victim of his own success and dislikes the industry that he has become part of.
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Was his 1st album the one with I Remember on it? (The album I can't pretend I don't have. :lol:) It's pretty much just standard electro-house mixed in with minimal and maybe a bit of trance IIRC, definitely not fresh and unique unless you'd never heard the likes of Booka Shade before.
 
Bez said:
When he started he was original and different a fresh and unique sound....I think now hes just a victim of his own success and dislikes the industry that he has become part of.
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When Deadmau5 first broke I think some of the stuff he was doing was pretty pioneering. It did sound completely different and a lot of people have copied since. He's obviously a bit of a production whizz kid - one of the most talented of this new generation spawned from bedroom producing. Technically, his productions are spot on - as the article here explains.

But he exemplifies better than anyone that curious divide between creative geeks who sit alone at their computers honing and tweaking every note and frequency and energetic people who love 'club culture' and everything it entails. He clearly has a distain for club culture and, maybe less so, the musical industry at large. That in itself probably translates into his productions which aren't nostaglic or 'raw' in the slightest.

I don't think it would be such a problem if he wasn't so outspoken. Part of it is that he likes courting controversy and likes the sound of his own voice. Another part of it is that because he's living so handsomely off an industry and public he has no time for occasionally his conscience is bullied into pushing in the opposite direction. It's normally accompanied with quite a few bullsh*t statements.

But that's Deadmau5 for you. You don't have to like him to like his music.
 
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djedwardsmith said:
Fairly useless article written by someone who's mind has clearly been made up about him for years and just jumped at the chance of an 'album review' to put his dislikes about him to print.
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I think it's an intelligently written article and a point that needs addressing.

Aside from the music being 'of the moment' with no lineage or depth to speak of - he has put himself up as a spokesperson for the genre...which is a repackaged/diluted version of what came before in complete denial of black/gay Chicago.

EDM isn't a revolution any more than x-fu(ktor.
 
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