deadmau5 has had no problem making headlines this year. On top of leading sold-out fests and headlining tours all year, he’s made public beef with Madonna over her “molly” reference, trolled Skrillex at the Grammys and posted a very controversial web article essentially titled “We All Hit Play.” The latter was his insight and experience of what it is to “play” a live show, and how mixing for an audience has been reduced to a minimum, that the art of “spinning” doesn’t exist for marquee acts like him in the contexts outside of the club.
And of course, there’s still the novelty of that mouse head, which deadmau5 dons as he’s behind the decks.
What 2012 is amounting to is deadmau5’s most publicity-heavy year, so as he prepares to release his new album in short order, all eyes may be on that sales tally to see if hype and heckling amount to “any press is good press.” It doesn’t hurt that this year has been hyped as the biggest year yet for EDM, as artists like Skrillex and David Guetta enter more fully into the national conversation about pop music.
It starts with the album’s title: “> album title goes here <” will be out on Sept. 25 via Ultra. And who knows if the label fought him on the cheeky name. Perhaps, considering the “singles” nature of so many electronica albums, he really couldn’t have been bothered to come up with one.
Regardless the tracklist has is own creative bout with capitals, and with deliciously tempting tracklist titles like “Fn Pig” and “Failbait,” plus and out-and-out co-credit with producer Wolfgang Gartner on “Channel 42.” deadmau5 has already released the official song “Professional Griefers” featuring My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way; other guests include Imogen Heap, Chris James and Cypress Hill.
The music video to “Professional Griefers” will be out this month. Many rough mixes and instrumentals to the songs below are previewed on deadmau5’s Soundcloud page.
deadmau5’s last “studio” set — “4×4=12” — made it to No. 47 on the Billboard 200 and to No. 2 on Electronic Albums.
Here is the tracklist to “> album title goes here <“:
Superliminal
deadmau5 & Wolfgang Gartner – Channel 42
The Veldt (featuring Chris James)
Fn Pig
Professional Griefers (featuring Gerard Way)
maths
There might be coffee
Take care of the proper paperwork
Closer
October
Sleepless
Failbait (featuring Cypress Hill)
Telemiscommunications (featuring Imogen Heap)