Got a bit of a double header for you guys today. Zedd has made a name for himself over the
last couple of years. I don’t understand
some of what he does (producing for Lady Gaga and….ugh...Justin Beiber?...really?...)
but there is no denying that he is one hell of a talented musician. To get an understanding of what I mean, look
up his piano version of Spectrum; its rather stunning, and to me it really
proves that these electronic producers are just as musically talented as any
other musician. We’ve all heard that dickhead say something along the lines of
“What do they even do? Don’t they just get up on stage and press play? I could do
that.” As someone who used to listen to a lot of classical music, I liken them
to orchestra conductors/composers. These
guys really need to understand music, every little component, where the bass
should come in, how to tweak the synthline to sing above everything else, how
to make that stunning vocal track stand out and add to a song rather than just
a muddled mess in with everything else.
In a good electronic song, every single bit has its place. Takes talent
man, and anyone who says otherwise can GTFO.
So with that bit of a rant done…I heard Zedd’s work for the
first time a couple of years ago with his remix of Skrillex’s “Breakin’ a
Sweat.” I didn’t really think much about
it at the time, but its slowly become one of my favorite electronic songs. The original, while good, is kind of mellow
for what I expect from Skrillex. Zedd throws up the middle finger and brings the
intensity right back up. He takes what I
saw as a kind of messy track and brings it together, but leaves it close enough
to the original so that it shows off both Zedd and Skrillex’s talent. The original is like your lame ass hanging
out with the chess club all weekend and the Zedd remix is like your older,
harder, badass-er brother (I heard that one time he even injected 5 whole
marijuanas!)
Now, following his Spectrum release over the summer, Zedd
released his first album Clarity, which I think is absolutely fantastic. While certainly not ground breaking, every
track is technically fantastic, and you can really hear Zedd playing around
with some different styles, flexing his legs a bit. Epos is really the highlight of the album for
me. Its got a really Deadmau5-ish vibe
to it that I absolutely love. And dat
synth line man….something about the way that it drifts in and out of synch
makes your brain itch, but in a good way! ….kinda like the satisfaction that
you get from popping a really big zit.
So yeah, a couple of killer tracks from Zedd; really shows
off his diversity, and I’m looking forward to hearing more from him in the
future.
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