From: Canada

DJ style: Progressive/electro-house/techno.

Joel Zimmerman, aka Deadmau5, aka Test Pilot, aka Goat Lord (see Twitter), has had a busy year. He’s started scoring a film, started his own Mixcloud show mau5trap radio, booked a headline show at London’s epic Printworks, started building his own first-person shooter game, released a new orchestral album, created a new portable Cube 0.5 live set-up and sent a fan a jar of toilet water in the mail, all in the name of trolling.

The mau5 is never one to rest on his laurels, his ‘mau5trap: Level 1’ EP released earlier this year seeing him collaborate with Pendulum’s Rob Swire for the first time since the seminal ‘Ghosts N Stuff’, with the second installment ‘Level 2’ due imminently. Although Deadmau5’s melodic side has never been too far from even his most energetic tracks, his orchestral album titled ‘Where’s The Drop?’ more literally explores his relationship with traditional composition, including an orchestrated version of his classic track ‘Strobe’.

Based on 2018 alone, it’s hard to predict what the mau5 will do next. Usually we’d have no doubt he’d continue to meander from immaculately produced club- and festival-friendly tracks that got him attention and the intricate compositions the won him fans. However, following criticism over several unnacceptable and offensive outbursts on social media shortly before this magazine went to press, Zimmerman released a statement apologising for his actions, addressing his own struggles with mental health, and announcing he would be taking time off to work on himself.

Words: DECLAN MCGLYNN