Deadmau5 Compilation 'We Are Friends Vol. 2' - Album Premiere

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We Are Friends Vol. 2

Courtesy Mau5trap/Astralwerks

Electronic music icon deadmau5 opens the We Are Friends Vol. 2 compilation with the driving (and hilariously named) new song "Suckfest9001." A pummeling beat drives downward while an industrial buzzing whirls in the background. Like many great dance cuts, it fades into an airy, unanchored mid-section before snapping back to its original, pulsating rhythm.

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Like its predecessor, We Are Friends Vol. 2, coming out on deadmau5’s own Mau5trap label, finds him culling his favorite picks from up-and-coming talent in the electronic music scene. Some of the artists return from the previous compilation, like Kairo Kingdom, who turn in the slow-burning and spooky "Machine Empire."

Newcomers to the series, like Eekkoo, who contributes the gothic "Lekture," are excited that an EDM innovator like Deadmau5 would take notice. "Who could have guessed that Deadmau5 would comment on a single of mine released 3 years ago?" Eekko tells Rolling Stone. "I certainly could not have. From that moment forward, speaking with him and the team at Mau5trap, I have felt unbelievably honored to have attracted their attention."

Deadmau5 spent the first half of the year releasing singles from 2012’s Album Title Goes Here. With new material now being released, the producer seems to be moving onto the next stage of his development, and it looks like he wants to bring his friends with him.

We Are Friends Vol. 2, out November 11th, is available for pre-order at iTunes.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

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