It is quite possible to feel a nagging sense of d?j? vu listening to Deadmau5’s new album, 4×4=12.
“Where have I heard this before”? you might ask.
Oh, I don’t know. Probably everywhere. At least four songs off the 11-track album were played at his concert in Madison Oct. 13 and most of them have been available for listen online for a while. The album will be available Dec. 7, but many of the singles are already available on iTunes.
Basically, 4×4=12 raises the eternal question about music in the Internet age. All the tracks have been floating in the ether for months. It’s up to the listeners to shell out about ten bucks for what, at this point, is artistic support. Buying this album is like seeing presents before Christmas. The surprise is gone, but hey, you still got some presents.
While most of the songs are not shiny and new, the album is filled with standard Deadmau5 beats peppered with strong female vocals (performed by SOFI, a.k.a. Sophia Toufa). The songs run the emotional gamut as well, including extremely danceable, energetic tracks and ones that could induce tears if heard on an already bad day.
In true Deadmau5 fashion, the heavy techno bass seems to transport you into a video game – a sexy, dubstep video game. “Right This Second” is a textbook case of Deadmau5’s style: Eight or so minutes of layered beats which sound like they are being generated in some intergalactic music factory.
“SOFI Needs a Ladder,” a standout on the album and also a part of Deadmau5’s Madison set list, features Toufa’s unpolished, punky voice, which has both a mechanical staccato as well as drawl. There is probably something wrong with you if you are not compulsively pulled to tap your foot or nod your head to this song, and an added bonus is that, unlike most of Deadmau5’s stuff, you can sing to “SOFI.”
There are two types of people: Those who think Deadmau5 should be hailed as the Lord and Savior of house dance music and those who think most of the tunes are pretty fancy 99 cent ringtones. Oversimplification aside, “Animal Rights” featuring Wolfgang Gartner will definitely separate the camps. The track, complete with techno-belches and digital-blips, weaves into a musical climax Daft Punk would be proud of.
And, of course, what album is complete without a reference to a mythical H.P. Lovecraft beast? Perhaps you have fond memories of getting smushed or crowd-surfing to “Cthulhu Sleeps” at the Alliant Energy Center. Thanks to this album, you can relive those very experiences whenever you want.
Most of the songs are an excellent soundtrack for an evening of strobe lights, repetitive head-bobbing and substances legal or otherwise. But the somber “Raise Your Weapon” near the end of the album has the same effect as when slow songs start playing at high school dances. It is the musical equivalent of “simma down now.”
So what’s with this 4×4=12 business? There is probably just as much sense behind the album’s name as there is behind the “5” in Deadmau5. It just is. Please, do not ask too many questions, it is hard to hear the music over them.
3 out of 5 stars
