Canada’s Deadmau5 (pronounced “dead mouse”) burst onto the dance music seen in 2006 and has been droppin mad hits* ever since.  He bends genres, creates his own sound** and has bass drums so thick they make you momma say damn!  With an Essential Mix on his resume, his own label, booming record sales world wide, and international acclaim*** our neighbor to the north has hit the big time in a big way.   And what better way to capitalize than with your own music video featuring a grizzled raver veteran (Stephen Graham)  grubbing out on breakfast while bestowing knowledge of the 10 commandments of raving in a semi-intelligible English accent?? Where the f was this guy when we were throwing undergrounds? Go ahead take 10 minutes to check it out, it’s like Groove condensed! And note how Deadmau5 (wearing the baseball cap) has like two lines the entire video. Hella funny. (Video, a dope remix and a 5erious Deadmau5 Di55 after the jump.  Go ahead, “read the rest of this post”!   You know you’ll be thinking about it all day if you don’t…)

* Deadmau5, only producing since 2006,  has a ridiculous 402 tracks available for download on Beatport alone.  Now while many of these are double or triple counted as there are remixes and releases of the same song on different labels, compare that total to any other international superstar DJ:

Paul van Dyk - Producing since 1994: 152 tracks

Felix Da Housecat - Producing since 1987: 120 tracks

Sasha - Producing since 1993: 80 tracks

Only mega trance star Tiesto eclipses Deadmau5 (in this totally un-scientific poll of prolific dance music producers off the top of my head)

Tiesto - Producing since 1994 - 594 releases!!  Deadmau5 still has a higher release rate tho, watch out Tiesto, your days at the top are numbered.

** You know you’ve “made it” as a producer when there’s a swell of tracks that rush to bite emulate your new found style, instantly making it played out.  Deadmau5 has weathered this rush and managed to keep churning out interesting, unique sounding music regardless, IMHO.

*** Not to keep referencing Beatport but damn, dude won Best Progressive Artest and Best Electro Artiest… TWO YEARS IN A ROW!

So I was riding this Deadmau5 high and doing research for this post when I came across this quote from him about his views on DJs:

“It puts me to fucking sleep, to be quite honest; I don’t really see the technical merit in playing two songs at the same speed together and it bores me to fucking tears and hopefully, with all due respect to the DJ type that will fucking go the way of the dinosaur, I’d like them to dis-a-fucking-pear! It’s so middle man, they’re like fucking lawyers! You need them, but they’re fucking cunts. God bless them, they’re my number one customer right, so I’m not gonna go dis every fucking DJ. But to say you become this massive, “up on a podium” performer by playing other peoples productions, at the same speed as someone else’s productions and fading between the two of them, I don’t get it…”

Damn, that’s 5ome 5erious hatin!! He later kinda apologized on his myspace page:

“let me start by admitting… i did not grow up in the EDM scene. I dont consider my career to be about “being a DJ”. i dont have “DJ roots” . I never had any intention of becoming a DJ. and my conception of “DJ’s” in general from this standpoint has always been… .. being forced into some nightclub when i would have rather stayed home, and watch some dood mash the “play / stop” button and occaisionally move a pitch slider. Love it or hate it…. that’s just been my conception of the traditional “dj”. Mind you, im not a total fucking idiot, and i recognize talent when i see it…. and there are many talented DJ’s out there for sure. In my eyes, those would be the individuals who utilize technology to deliver the music in ways that are both skillful and innovate, moreso than my vision of the “play/stop/pitch” DJ. To me, the club is about “the party” …. the people make the night… the DJ obviously needs to use that to his advantage, it’s give and take.”

Look, I’m gonna level with you here. When I first read that diss it really hurt… because so much of it is absolutely true. I have long felt the limitations of being a DJ, you are really not putting a whole lot of yourself artistically into any given performance and if you stay within any particular genre the songs absolutely start to all sound the same. But, as I did grow up in the EDM (Electronic Dance Music?) scene and I do have DJ roots and I would love for my career to be about DJing and ever since my first rave 14 years ago have had every intention of becoming a DJ I can say that there absolutely is performance art to made behind the decks, even if you aren’t making the music live, even if you are mixing songs together that go the same speed. It’s much more subtle, much harder to appreciate, but when you hear a good DJ play a great set you know it to be true.

So anyway, in honer of the Dedmau5 Di55, I present you a remix of one of his own tracks that has a decidedly different speed that what is the norm around the kitchen. When dubstep is done rite it’s really quite fantastic and I’ve been meaning to work some of into my sets; maybe this Deadmau5 thing is just the kick in the ass I need. I really love this remix, far more the the original, because Caspa injects some grimy dubstep base that stands out in harmonious contrast to the shiny lead synth and soaring voice in the original. Yes, I just typed “Harmonious Contrast”… only two months into this music blogging thing and I’m already sounding like a poofter. But I guess that’s better than “a middle man fucking lawyer DJ who needs to go the way of the dinosaur”… oh wait, I’m one of those too. Dammit! Enjoy Caspa’s Remix of Deadmau5: “I Remember”:

Deadmau5 & Kaskade - “I Remember” - Caspa Remix (320 kb/s)