For The Record: November 2014
For The Record: November 2014
Dancing Astronaut runs down five of the essential full-length offerings of the month, featuring Joris Voorn, RL Grime, Deadmau5, David Guetta and Hot Since 82.
Joris Voorn - Nobody Knows (Rejected)
Fans have waited patiently for the third studio album from Dutch producer Joris Voorn. Back on Green for the first time since 2004, the follow-up to From A Deep Place sounds every bit perfected as its time scale of delivery would suggest.
Far less club-focused than its predecessors, spare yet well placed collaborations cement an otherwise intimate journey into the eclectic mindset that has made the Eindhoven legend a true innovator both on record and behind the decks. Ultimately, Nobody Knows was sent to test the patience and maturity of the modern pallet. Atmospheric and meticulously composed, there’s fuel for refined music lovers and underground club advocates alike to be found within Voorn’s most prolific studio output to date.
RL Grime - VOID (WeDidIt)
RL Grime has finally made an album; just don’t call it trap. The American producer has voiced little appreciation for being bracketed into the genre, but his debut album for WeDidtIt is the near perfect graduation.
Though sparing on the collaborations, his efforts alongside Big Sean, Djemba Djemba and How To Dress Well make for an unpredictable yet befitting series of unions across the musical landscape. Less game-changer, more tedium-buster, there is a level of substance to this full-length offering that may surprise many who thought they had the West Coast heavyweight pinned down. RL Grime has mutated into one of the most diverse bass-favoring artists to emerge from the fertile North American playing field — VOID being grade-A evidence of his unique vision for his craft.
Deadmau5 - 5 Years of Mau5 (Mau5trap)
Say what you will about his social etiquette, but few will ever measure against deadmau5 in the discography department. 5 Years of Mau5 is testament to the Canadian heavyweight’s immense musical journey: part retrospective, part renaissance.
Perfectly collecting some of the Mau5trap ringleaders finest hits, timeless works such as “I Remember,” “Faxing Berlin,” “Raise Your Weapon” and “The Veldt” spotlight the audacious forms his musical prowess has taken over the past decade. Remixes new, old and in some cases uninspiring dominate the second side to this reflective coin, but are saved by top tier efforts from Pig&Dan, Shiba San and Madeon along the way. Ultimately, 5 Years of Mau5 tells the tale of a unique success story unlikely to be repeated by another.
David Guetta - Listen (Atlantic/Parlophone)
David Guetta’s studio work has historically renewed the relevance of electronic music on the pop world. The landscape may have changed considerably since 2011’s Nothing But The Beat, but the Parisian legend and original crossover king had everything to prove with its boundary-taunting follow-up.
Where Guetta’s earlier albums gradually gave dance music a commercial edge, Listen feels more like a futuristic pop album with electronic hallmarks. It has its ballads, party anthems and enough high profile cameos to make both worlds foam at the mouth. Like it or not, this is still one of the most consistent bodies of work to show the full scope of dance music’s cultural reach. Listen is the final nail in the coffin for Guetta’s departure from his European house roots, but owes to the bigger picture of his on-going orchestration of electronic music for the universal palette.
Hot Since 82 - Knee Deep in Sound (Knee Deep in Sound)
Daley Padley’s Knee Deep In Sound imprint set out to define its musical space in 2014. The culmination of this journey is an aptly titled album that showcases Hot Since 82’s band of bass-favouring house heads in fighting form.
Alongside a handful of exclusives bearing little differentiation to the Padley house swagger we know and love, Traumer, Black Box and Kamero make for class additions to this potted celebration of the next generation house movement. Hot Since 82 was top of his game long before a slack groove and a sloppy bassline fell into vogue. His may be a simple and potentially dated party trick, but there is little denying his ownership of the sound and the growing family values behind Knee Deep In Sound.