Joel Zimmerman – aka Toronto techno producer Deadmau5 – claims to be terrible at maths: 4x4 = 12 apparently refers to an elementary multiplication error he made whilst sound-checking this year. What he IS good at is ceiling-scrapingly vast progressive house – a style which so thoroughly infuses his third studio album that it’s hard to think of it as anything other than a long advertorial for his live shows (he plays a sell-out O2 show in December). That’s not to say 4 x 4 doesn’t contain the occasional interesting moment: with vocals from Tommy Lee’s missus, Sofia “Sofi” Toufa, ‘Sofi Needs A Ladder’ karate kicks through the smog of bland efficiency. And the dub-step infused ‘Cthulhu Sleeps’ deserves to be applauded for its Lovecraft referencing name alone. Otherwise, this is strictly for the arms-in-the-air rave brigade.
Key track: ‘Cthulhu Sleeps’