It's very easy to be snooty about artists such as Deadmau5. If you are one of those people who class themselves as an EDM purist, it's easy to write him off, and criticise him for trying to take the dance floor into the arena, a lot like the vastly-inferior stadium-dance plodders Pendulum.
But write Joel Zimmerman off at your peril, because one thing is true about this fella - he knows his way around a 4/4. This is a masterclass in house music from start to finish, and sure, whilst it's not got the kick or the tough streak of quality that 'I Remember' or 'Ghosts 'n' Stuff' had, there are more than a few keepers in here that you can drop into your sets with ease ('Attention Whore' and 'This Is Also The Hook' being standout tracks).
This is house music that gives you a slap around the face. This is house music to make your bum clench. This is a decent odds and sods compilation.
Have a listen below and let us know what you think... I think it's a 7/10
'Deadmau5 - At Play Vol.2' is available on March 22nd on Play Records
Early in the 20th century popular music was dominated by a collection of music publishers and songwriters, who operated under the moniker Tin Pan Alley. This collective was responsible for the lion's share of musical output of the era, with the performing artists themselves playing second fiddle to the men that pulled the strings.
Now, early in the 21st century, it could be argued that not much has changed. In a world infected with the X Factor, a flailing chart and an army of wannabes demanding their piece of Andy Warhol's oft-quoted prophecy, it is, once again, the producers and songwriters controlling the market we know as "popular music". And what do they do? If something works once, it'll damn well work again: Cher with her vocoder, Rihanna with her "ela-ela-ela" and so on. Even outside the world of pop, how many bands have cropped up that have been given a Libertines, Strokes or Joy Division gloss to their records? What the industry needs is a few DIY purists that can show what's achievable with a little effort, creativity and confidence. What the industry needs is The Last Dinosaur.
Hooray! For Happinessis a DIY record – like, “to the max”. This body of both intimate and widescreen work (more on that later) wasn't created on a Mac with endless tracks at its creators' disposal, it was made on a 16 track recorder. The album's liner notes detail the challenges at hand when recording an album under such constraints: just two microphones were all that could be afforded to the drums (one over head and one in the kick drum) and that the way around harmonies was to use a loop pedal. This admission isn't apologetic however, it's proud -- and rightly so.
Across 12 tracks The Last Dinosaur (Jamie Cameron & Luke Hayden) have managed to put together a record which defies coherent classification. Opening with Every Second Is A Second Chance, a thousand digital raindrops explode over and over again while, slowly but surely, a tribal drum fades into the foreground ready to play call and answer with the piano that follows it. It builds. A saxophone floats in the middle distance. The ebb and flow continues until it climaxes in a bombast of cymbals, guitars and euphoric vocal chanting. In this track alone you could throw comparisons such as Ólafur Arnalds, Broken Social Scene and Explosions In The Sky into the mix.
After six and a half glorious opening minutes we have, ostensibly, a post-rock album in our hands. Think again.Every Second... is followed by Fool -- which has proper vocals. "I'm a fool for you," repeats over and over as the chord progression repeats over and over; pianos, acoustics and bass drive the track in its infancy, its intimacy, while the just-more-than-a-breath vocal mantra loops. Falling over itself into second gear a string section lifts the track out of its intimacy into its grandiose conclusion.
It's this balance between intimacy and the epic that sits at the centre of Hooray! For Happiness;everything is measured and calculated. The loud-quiet-loud dynamic isn't exactly a new idea but its execution here is subtle. Things build naturally. The same trick is rarely employed twice with all manner of guitars, pianos, strings, brass, vocals and percussion taking centre stage on varying tracks. The album takes turns into the hushed folk of Bon Iver (Be That Boy), the soundtrack landscapes of Sigur Ros (The Song Playing at the End of the Film of My Life) and the organic electronics of Fridge (The First Last Dinosaur Song) without ever losing focus or coherence.
An extra insight into this labour of love is the liner notes accompanying each track, giving a gimps into the each piece’s conception; The Greatest Film Never Made (an album highlight) was inspired by the documentary Lost In La Mancha about Terry Gilliam's still incomplete film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, the piano recorded using a 60's ribbon microphone “donated by a very generous older gentleman who would come into Blockbuster every Thursday.” Combine this with a series of video shorts to accompany each track and you have something which becomes more than just the album, it’s a package; a project.
When the Beatles recorded Sgt Pepper they used a four track recorder and still decided A Day in the Life was doable; there’s a lot to be said for creativity through limitation. The Last Dinosaur take this idiom and run with it by creating one of most refreshing, creative and inventive records of the year.
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You can listen to Hooray! For Happiness on BandCamp
Kraftwerk are releasing a lovely boxset called 12345678 - The Catalogue. It’s filled with remastered and revisioned versions of the eight minimalist electronic classic albums. They've also released the albums individually with brand new artwork. Why Autobahn needs new artwork I don’t know but apparently it does.
Thing is there are absolutely no extras on any of them, and, unlike The Beatles, Kraftwerk have been very careful to make sure that all their previous works have been digitally remastered to true Kling Klang standards. So, what rarities are there out in the real world that they could have used to create “9”, the boxset's bonus album? Here’s a few selections for you to consider.
First up, how about the original seven inch single version of Autobahn? Totally unavailable on any officially released album this has only been available to collectors via bootleg cd’s providing scratchy versions taken from the old vinyl, or reconstrucions made up from official releases.
Or how about the original version of Kometenmelodie2?
Going onto album number two how about the French extended remix version of Radioactivity?
Actually, there are quite a few French rarities, here’s Mini Calculateur. It’s longer than some versions you may be more familiar with.
Maybe you’d prefer the German Version
Back to the French - original version of Mannequins, anyone?
Kraftwerk did loads of twelve inch versions. I didn’t know about this particular version of Computerwelt.
Having done many French and English version of their songs, they also did German versions of things they originally did in other languages. The most pointless? A German Tour de France - well a German only release of Tour de France. Any jokes about the last time the German’s toured France involved a World War are not appreciated and belong on a lesser site.
The flawed album is Techno Pop. It’s release was delayed by over three years and was given a new name (Electric Café). Now re-released under the original name the album continues to be revised. The full album version of Telephone Call has been replaced with the single version and a twelve inch version. But not this version
But how would you end “9”? Well, I guess you could either go with something pre Autobahn that at the same time showed the world where Kraftwerk were heading, a track like Kristallo, for example
But personally, I would go with this as a hidden cd-rom extra. Kraftwerk, the sit-com
Apparently both Karl and Wolfgang know about this viral and find it funny. I hope Ralf and Florian do, or we’ll be forced to use this…
It's very easy to be snooty about artists such as Deadmau5. If you are one of those people who class themselves as an EDM purist, it's easy to write him off, and criticise him for trying to take the dance floor into the arena, a lot like the vastly-inferior stadium-dance plodders Pendulum.
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