BEST OF 2009: Deadmau5 - Strobe

It's been a huge year for dance music. Over the next ten days we're going to look back at the largest tracks of 2009, as featured on Large Weekend.

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Toronto's Joel Zimmerman, the man behind Deadmau5 might just be my most admired electronic music producer in the known universe. Strobe is a breathtaking, hauntingly beautiful, delicately composed masterwork. The first three and a half minutes consist of a gently unfolding piano motif. It's coupled with symphonic strings and a continuous walking accompaniment that makes for some astounding listening. The idea explored in this opening, it would seem, is scale. The tone of music is grandiose -- cinematic in scope, deceptively complex in its composition -- yet at the same time it's simple, unpretentious and light. So, it's almost big and small at the same time. Section two, sees the first instance of house percussion, before a secondary, more complex synth motif is introduced. Using Deadmau5's distinctive sound palette, the chord structure from the opening is developed into a more intense musical experience. A counter-melody is added and the rhythmic patterns are quickened. This makes for a dramatic second act that's particularly impressive on a packed dancefloor.

Putting Deadmau5's work into words is always a tricky task. At the heart of this track is a feeling, an emotion, that Zimmerman perfectly translates into digital music. I think that's the key to all of his work. When composition successfully transcends an authentic feeling, something magical happens. That magic is present in almost all of Deamau5's work.

rating: *****
url: www.myspace.com/deamau5
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