Deadmau5, a renown music producer from Toronto, has just dropped his latest album W:/2016ALBUM/, along with North American tour dates for 2017.

When I first saw the album name, my original thought was, well Joel has given up on conventional methods, and is going rouge. Thank goodness for some variety.

It might not be the best marketing move, but the album is amazing. Earlier in the day, I had an electronic group from Australia send over their material, and I tore them up for attempting to copy and mirror a broken pattern in pop music, and electronic music. This trend is to create a standard electronic beat, and layer it with female vocals.

The album does feature Grabbitz on vocals. His presence marks greatness on the album. With EDM music become stale recently, this new album gives the genre a facelift.

When I put on W:/2016ALBUM/ for the first time, it was a breath of fresh air. The beat structure is smart and original. Each song is made with immense thought. When Deadmau5 adds Grabbitz to the tracks, he is not adding his vocals to copy a trend, but more rather setting the trend by adding his vocals for a purpose.

One of the best pieces of insight I acquired from a musician was by Jeff Austin, bluegrass musician, formerly in Yonder Mountain String Band. I asked why doesn’t he layer some horns on the band’s music. Austin explained to me that he wouldn’t add horns just to add horns, but rather he would add them for a purpose. And that is the same level of thought that has gone in Deadmau5’s latest project.

W:/2016ALBUM/ has a couple of tracks that reflect Joel’s love for old school video games.

An interesting new visual element that Deadmau5 is working on is a live stream channel with YouTube.

React Presents noted: ‘DEADMAU5 who will be performing with his epic new Cube 2.1 stage design at Aragon Ballroom on Thursday, May 4th and Friday May 5th!’

Those two shows will take place in Chicago with the first show already being sold out. Several of the shows for his tour have already sold out, so act quick on picking up tickets.

Scan over tour dates, and connect with the album.