| Joel Zimmerman doesn’t like being called a DJ. The 28-year-old dance music
phenomenon from Toronto, better known as Deadmau5, rolls his eyes a the
description, which he sees as a hopelessly outdated way of describing what he does.
His sets are closer to live performances. He plays mostly his own material, assembling
tracks on the fly, using cutting edge computer technology, including software he’s
helped write himself. “There are no CDs involved,” he explains. “It’s a technological
orgy up there and I try and keep it more my music than anyone else’s. If people come
out to see Deadmau5 I want them to hear Deadmau5 music.”
It’s an approach that’s catapulted Deadmau5 into dance music’s A-list. It’s no
exaggeration to say that he’s the most exciting name in clubland right now. Over the
last three years he’s released a string of club hits, starting with the trance-house
hybrid Faxing Berlin in 2006. It was followed last year by the euphoric filtered keys of
Ghosts N Stuff, while this year he reached Number 14 with the lush atmospherics of I
Remember, his collaboration with American producer Kaskade — the track has now
sold over 120,000 copies. This October, Zimmerman releases his new album, For Lack
Of A Better Name, which brings together the best of his single releases from the last
12 months. It’s not hard to see why the the pulsing dance groove of Hi Friend!
featuring MC Flipside and FML’s military percussion and hard-hitting bass hook
continue to fill dancefloors around the globe. The first single will be a new version of
Ghosts N Stuff, featuring vocals from Rob Swire, one half of drum’n’bass/rock
fusionists Pendulum. It’s electrifying stuff.
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