Deadmau5 Is Really Bad At Making Song Titles
When the mysterious ATTLAS was introduced to the music scene last year, many people were quick to speculate that this was a secret identity and alter-ego of Deadmau5. Eventually news got out that ATTLAS wasn’t Deadmau5, but that didn’t stop fans’ excitement for his music.
Now Deadmau5 has paired up with ATTLAS to release a dark new track titled “Bad at Titles.” As for why it’s called that, well, take a look at the tweet below and you’ll get the idea — the guy who’s put out records called “4×4=12” and “Slip” apparently ran out of patience trying to come up with something clever this time around, and just called it what it is.
Sonically, it’s exactly the kind of dark, rolling techno collaboration you’d hope for from these two. deadmau5 has spent years bouncing between his more melodic, festival-facing productions and moodier, club-oriented techno, and pairing up with ATTLAS pushes this one firmly into the latter camp — all hypnotic percussion and slow-building tension, built more for a dark room at 3 a.m. than a festival mainstage.
Listen to it below.
in the studio today with @attlas working on some techno stuffs… fucking around. https://t.co/zqXVrNWokx
— dead mow cinco (@deadmau5) April 4, 2016
in the studio today with @attlas working on some techno stuffs… fucking around. https://t.co/zqXVrNWokx
— Goat lord (@deadmau5) April 4, 2016
Editor’s note:
The two SoundCloud embeds originally featured with this story no longer function — deadmau5 deleted his SoundCloud account entirely in May 2016, shortly after this piece was first published, in the wake of a security scare on the platform. Both tracks have since found permanent, official homes elsewhere, so we’ve linked those below instead of leaving you with dead players.
Shortly after uploading his track with Attlas, Deadmau5 uploaded “Snowcone,” which seems to be more experimental. It’s built around a colder, more skeletal groove than “Bad at Titles,” trading the collaborative techno energy for something moodier and more solo in feel — proof that even on the same day, deadmau5’s output can swing in wildly different directions.
deadmau5 & ATTLAS – Bad At Titles
deadmau5 – Snowcone
Between “Bad at Titles” and “Snowcone,” it’s a pretty good snapshot of where deadmau5’s head was at in the studio during this stretch — one foot in collaborative, dancefloor-ready techno with ATTLAS, and the other in stranger, more experimental solo territory. Not bad for a guy who, by his own admission, can’t be bothered to come up with a good song name.
