[m3ta1head]

It is upon us. The release of deadmau5's third compilation album, 4x4=12, due out on Ultra Records on Dec 7th in the US.  Impeccable mastering and mixing by ma5 as usual, the production quality of this album is FANTASTIC-bass extension is deep, and the beats have a gritty, visceral texture to them that sounds uncannily realistic for what is essentially computer generated music.  I also noticed quite a bit of bite/attack through my D2000s and speakers throughout listening to this album-the mix is very clear and well defined!
 
I painstakingly found the final mixes of every single track on the album on youtube. Some of these tunes just came out today!
 
1. Some Chords
 

 
2. Sofi Needs a Ladder (feat. SOFI)
 

 
3. City in Florida  
 

 
 
4. Bad Selection
 

 
5. Animal Rights (with Wolfgang Gartner) 

 
 
6. I Said (Michael Woods Remix) (with Chris Lake)
 

 
7. Cthulhu Sleeps
 

 
8. Right This Second  
 

 
9. Raise Your Weapon (feat. Greta Svabo Bech) 
 

 
 
10. One Trick Pony (feat. SOFI)
 

 
 
11. Everything Before    

 
Notable tracks include "Cthulhu Sleeps", "Raise Your Weapon", and "One Trick Pony", all hard hitting dubstep. "Animal Rights", an excellent electro house track with lots of synth melodies, and "Right This Second", a melodic kickback to Strobe.
 
deadmau5s music is definitely evolving-I was at Coachella when he debuted a lot of this music, and it took me by surprise back then to hear the deadmau5 I knew pump out some filthy ass dubstep. Now I can't even fathom not having this music in my life-it is just so sublime! This album is going to be an amazing end to 2010!

 

[m3ta1head]

hmm...no mau5 listeners here?  surely there must be an electro crowd

 

[dj nellie]

I love tech-house and I'm definitely gonna check this one out.  But I'm not too excited to hear he's moving towards dubstep.  There's already a hundred guys out there doing dubstep, and doing it pretty well (even though it's not really my thing).
 
I'm more eagerly awaiting the new Daft Punk.  They can't come as weak as they did on their last studio album, right?

 

[11amaberry]

Wow, thanks much for your troubles! I'm not a huge deadmau5 fan, Boys Noise and Justice are my favs, but I'm definitely going to check this album out!

 

[T.B.N.]

Very cool stuff, I hadn't heard of Deadmou5 before. I'm not well entrenched into the electronic scene though. That's something I must remedy soon 

 

[11amaberry]

^ It's huge nowadays. I just recently got into this type of music, and there's some really good stuff out there. I'd suggest getting a last.fm account, and listening to Deadmau5, Justice, Pendulum, and Boys Noize radio stations to get you started.

 

[dj nellie]

I listened to the new Deadmau5 album almost entirely.  There are definitely some hot beats, "Animal Rights" may be my favorite track.  "Cthulu Sleeps" has some nice "bring down and build up" dynamics, although it's a bit too long. Overall, it's basically more of Mau5's typical style:  Dark, sinister-sounding tech-house beats punctuated by thick, thumping bass.  The beats often get repetitive, although he does some nice work with the atmospherics and distorted synth-lines to build up the pressure before the cathartic fat beats drop. 
 
IMO, there isn't really anything on here that matches "Faxing Berlin", "The Reward is Cheese", or "I Remember" (2 of which were co-produced with other artists).  The dubstep songs that end the album are a mixed bag; when the beat switches on "Raise Your Weapon", it's a bit of a surprise, but for me the beat is a bit too repetitive and the vocals don't seem to fit the mood of the song.  The lyrics on "One Trick Pony" are downright cringeworthy (they remind me of the god-awful vocals on Justice's "Tthhh-ee-ppp-aarrrty"). 
 
"Everything Before" is a nice closer, a return to the dark tech-house that Deadmau5 does best.
 
What do you guys think?  Any other recent house or tech-house albums I should check out?  Or at least singles?

 

[JRG1990]

I really like this remix of animal rights , http://soundcloud.com/darkelixir/animal-rights-remix?page=1

 

[11amaberry]

^ Same here. I'm eyeing the newest BN album, Power. I don't have any idea what genre it's under though.

 

[dj nellie]

I was a huge fan of Boys Noize's debut album ("Oi Oi Oi") so I had high hopes for his 2nd.  He's also done some great remixes (check out his mix of Cut Copy's "Lights and Music" and Feist's "My Moon My Man").
 
But with the exception of "Gax" and "Kontact Me", none of the songs on "Power" were really memorable.  None of them have the same head-bobbing, party-starting vibe of the best tracks on his first album.  It's nice to see him sort of branching out from being a minimalist version of Daft Punk (circa "Homework"), but I guess I was hoping for something different.  He puts on a pretty fun live show, though.

 

[scannon18]

Thanks for alerting me to this album, I through this on my iPod and was jamming to Deadmau5 at work all day.
 
I love electronic music, it's a great scene.

 

[Ynoskire]

It's still not random album title, for me it's more of a random dubstep album, me doesn't like.

 

[Kaidao]

Just got this album today, it's pretty good but I still think For Lack of a Better Name is better. I've listened to that album so many times..still not sick of it haha.

 

[Marcus_C]

I was listening to this album earlier, to be honest, i think deadmau5 has done better tracks but one question? Is the vocalist on track 2 the same one who used to work with deadmau5 under the melleefresh alias?? To my knowledge he hasn't worked with her for a while and it sounds very similar.

 

[MrGreen]

Quote:

hmm...no mau5 listeners here?  surely there must be an electro crowd

I prefer to listen to something good.
 
Deadmau5 is rubbish and his attitude to other musicians/music fans needs a serious going over considering how little talent he has.
 
IMO.