Essential deadmau5

With deadmau5’s new album while(1

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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With deadmau5’s new album while(1<2) dropping today, we decided to go through his catalog and pick 10 essential tunes we thought you needed to hear and/or be reminded of. The irony is that, despite the fact that deadmau5 claims his new album today is his first, in our eyes it’s anything but. Going through his catalog proved that point, as while there are many countless amazing tracks–and definitely more then the 10 here–it’s how these tracks work together and flow from one another in their specific contexts that truly show how beautiful they are and why they work. An analogy for life perhaps, deadmau5’s discography isn’t meant to be picked and parceled out into analytical bits, but to be experienced as a whole, spiritually engulfing and enriching experience. That of course though isn’t going to be enough for us androids as we’re trying to figure out if we even dance and if so, why. Here are 10 essential deadmau5 tunes.

deadmau5 - "HR 8938 Cephei"

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Label: mau5trap
Year: 2011

This is a track with origins related to deadmau5's noted love of Minecraft, and while I don't honestly know too much about that, I do know that this song is classic deadmau5. It's a progressive mix of ambient soundscapes, hard-driving house grooves, and it has a distinct pulse. Similar to "Strobe," deadmau5 delivers something with arpeggiated background melodic fills and highlights them with a leading crisp sound that will get you right in the feels. Additionally, this track is named after a star. A star that (according to Wikipedia) is just under the limitations of visibility via the naked eye–much like how this track has flown under the radar and deadmau5's artistry is often taken for granted.

deadmau5 ft. Rob Swire - "Ghosts 'N Stuff"

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Label: mau5trap
Year: 2009

No doubt this song is deadmau5's most commercially successful ever. With Rob Swire on vocals, "Ghosts n Stuff" has become an iconic track not only in the mau5 cannon, but the greater dance music cannon. Without a track like this, electronic dance music would simply not be in the place it is today.

deadmau5 & Kaskade - "I Remember"

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Label: mau5trap
Year: 2008

Kaskade might be headlining festivals now, and we're not taking anything away from his success, but there's no question that this collaboration with deadmau5 is part of what truly put both of them over the top. For two guys who have made their bread on dreamy, ethereal house cuts, this pretty much takes the cake. The insta-classic track has been remixed into dubstep, trap, drum & bass–nearly everything under the sun. Today though, this track still rings as as an anthem with an emotional weight in it's original form.

deadmau5 & Wolfgang Gartner - "Animal Rights"

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Label: mau5trap
Year: 2010

A funky, complex electro smasher from Wolfgang and deadmau5 like "Animal Rights" is no doubt one you need to have in your crates forever. It's a track that can set off any party ready to groove and it's one that continued to solidfy the two acts as true major party starters. That's not to say these two didn't have HITS before this–they 100% did–but this one put them on the same page and everybody is still reveling in this one. It's got some Miami in this one and it's perfect for soundtracking your transformation into a full on party animal.

deadmau5 ft. Greta Svabo Bech - "Raise Your Weapon"

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Label: mau5trap
Year: 2011

When this tune droppped, heads were saying "deadmau5 has gone dubstep." The reality is that he hadn't, he had just taken elements of the North American brostep scene with gun-fire sound design and razer sharp hits to craft somehting of his own anthemic weapon using half-time sections in the midst of his usual house style. The climactic track on 4x4=12 birthed remixes from NOISIA and Madeon and gave Greta Svabo-Bech her first real hit of a track but as a whole, this track is a pure tour de force and it also proved to a ton of people that you could never really see what was happening with or going to happen with deadmau5.

deadmau5 - "Strobe"

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Label: mau5trap
Year: 2009

Oft-regarded by mau5heads as his "most beautiful tune," "Strobe" brings an intense melancholic opening before progressing into a heart-lifting euphoria. The beauty of this track is unmatched in my opinion–the oscilatting melodies juxtaposed against the deliberately delivered uplifting chords. It's not hard to hear this track and imagine deadmau5 sitting at his workstation like a composer in the 18th century painstakingly delivering each note with precision and forethought. This track's beauty though is even highlighted in it's details. Little sample fils like a spray here, a rattle snake there are what really elevate deadmau5 artistry to a new level.

deadmau5 ft. Chris James - "The Veldt"

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Label: mau5trap
Year: 2012

Inspired by Ray Bradbury's short story of the same name, "The Veldt" was a summer hit and festival topper since the day it was released. It's a track that resonates today with twinkling melodies and Chris James' hook–"the world that the children made" and it inspires a sense of wonderment.

deadmau5 - "Some Chords"

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Label: mau5trap
Year: 2010

The opening track for one of the mau5's finest 'compilations,' "Some Chords" is an iconic track with its truly epic long-lasting builds and massive pay-off beginning. When the beat finally does drop, mau5's electro-strut is in full-effect and you're on your way to a 3D listening experience.

deadmau5 - "Faxing Berlin"

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Label: mau5trap
Year: 2007

deadmau5's tracks can hit every bit and range of emotion. The upltifingly euphoric, the down and dirty, and then there's track's like "Faxing Berlin." A tune that builds slowly in anticipation, "Faxing Berlin" oozes a certain tempered anxiousness and readiness that belies the track's final endpoint of a matured yet driving emotive progressive house tune. There's no over-the-top special or celebrity vocalist and there's no gimmick on this track, but a testament to what exactly makes deadmau5 so special.

deadmau5 - "There Might Be Coffee"

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Label: Ultra
Year: 2012

deadmau5's affinity and skill for composing and producing orchestral suites is truly bar none. "There Might Be Coffee" is a perfect example of this as it opens with dramatic strings before getting dose of '80s new wave lead synth action to get you going on an interstellar journey. The title perhaps is a reference to this idea that the journey we're all on might lead to coffee, but regardless, the journey is beautiful. What is coffee in this case? Well I think that's up to your own analysis.

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