deadmau5

Since beat-matching his way onto the scene in late 2005, Niagara Falls DJ hero Deadmau5 has been one busy cat. At Play Vol. 2, his eighth release, collects ten singles in their original full-length, DJ-friendly glory, all while demonstrating an artist at his most fertile. Never letting the beat slip from its 4/4 comfort zone, Deadmau5 instead works with melody and pitch, creating rubbery beats out of cardboard clichés. The songs draped with the most personality justifiably utilize some of Deadmau5's favourite collaborators; the Detroit-esque slink of "R My Dreams" (featuring '80s Canadian R&B bastion Billy Newton-Davis) sits comfortably alongside the kooky, Speak & Spell-powered dribble of "This is Also the Hook" (with NIN and A Perfect Circle programmer Steve Duda). But it's the Euro-trashy "Attention Whore" and "Sex Slave" (featuring Care Bears and Inspector Gadget voice actor Melleefresh) that fully demonstrate just how intangible house music has become under the watchful eye of the mouse in the mask.