Where You (Might) Learn to Dance
Deadmau5 – At Play 3
The third compilation from Canadian house produce Deadmau5 is a fairly atmospheric listen, comprised mostly of songs from his album Vexillology. I had never heard of Deadmau5 before this review until my boss recommended him.
Honestly, At Play Vol. 3 doesn’t do much for me. The first two tracks, “Cyclic Redundancy” and “Apply Overnight” were plain boring. They were simply too low key, simple and repetitive. I found myself disappointed with this musician.
Then the third track, “Plus” started playing. It’s a pretty lively track, and it held my attention. While not much more complex than the first two, it is a more fleshed out song, and the beat really hit me.
The fourth track, “Lai,” is even better. Ambient, complex, and surprisingly epic at only five minutes length, it’s easily a track I can listen to over and over again.
The fifth track, “TL7,” is a step back to the boring style of the first two tracks, but fortunately it is followed by the hypnotic “Bounce,” a fairly simple but energetic track that simply makes you want to dance. I especially love how the beat changes, keeping it fresh and increasingly frantic. The following track, “Full Bloom,” keeps the energy up with a hectic, ambient and mesmerizing beat.
“Templar” is a track I should have liked, since it has the same energy I liked in “Bounce” and “Full Bloom,” but the drums grew slightly boring and even irritating after about a minute into the song. the ninth song, “Stereo Fidelity,” is a fun, hectic track. There’s a lot going on, but it creates a fun mood, rather than coming off sloppy or too busy.
This compilation could have ended stronger. The tenth and final track, “Whispers (Remix)” sounds like the stereotypical house track. It’s not bad, it’s just not particularly engaging and a little repetitive.
If you’re a fan of Deadmau5 but don’t have much of his music, At Play 3 is definitely something you’ll want to pick up. If you’re not a fan of Deadmau5 or of house music, you can pass on this. I’ll probably get some heat for this (including from my boss), but I’m not too impressed with Deadmau5. I still think Danger Mouse is the best mouse around.
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| Print article | This entry was posted by Alex Ramirez on August 2, 2010 at 9:01 pm, and is filed under Album review. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 1 year ago
Reviewer, you have missed out on the sound deadmau5 created, mainly post-Vexillology stuff. Grab the album ‘Random Album Title’ and you will witness some of the best, extremely melodic, excellently produced progressive house around. (Too many highlights to give)
There’s no way you can say Templar is not the best track on the album, the atmosphere it creates is just outstanding. It makes you feel as if you have been transported to a massive dance cave 4000 years ago. Also, listen to the subtle change in the drums on Whispers after the first drop a minute and a half in that makes them pound almost too hard. Straight up ridiculous production values.
I’m definitely saying you’re correct on the listenability of the tracks, but you have to think of how intense they will be on the dancefloor, because that’s definitely what the mau5 is thinking.
about 1 year ago
You make some good points. I will admit I’m not the most qualified to review trance. And I know it’s music that’s meant for the dance floor and not really the headphones, but to be honest, trance isn’t really my favorite music to hear when I’m out dancing. I still tried to be objective with this review and cover something outside my comfort zone, but thank you for bringing up those points.
I’ll be sure to check out Random Album Title and try to give it a more thorough listening than I did this one.