I hate to be the one to rain on the EDM world’s collective parade, but I hate it even worse when supposedly world-class artists dump mediocre material on their fans.
Superstar DJ/producer Tiësto played Tomorrowland in Belgium last weekend, and premiered a new collaboration with his fellow Dutchman, Don Diablo. No joke – I had to open up Don Diablo’s latest release and listen to both of them side by side to make sure they didn’t have the exact same drop.
The ID in the video above – which is currently making its rounds on social media under the working title “Chemicals” – features a powerful, memorable vocal that gives it instant main stage appeal. A signature Tiësto synth lead builds up to an invigorating upswell, but then segues into what sounds almost identical to the drop from Don Diablo’s “On My Mind,” clashing substantially with everything else in the arrangement.
For comparison, listen to the drop at 1:00 in the video above, and the one at 1:00 in the SoundCloud embed below:
While the melody in each drop was a bit different, they were both in the same key and the sound design elements sounded nearly identical. Perhaps the biggest criticism of electronic music is that so much of what an artist puts out is borrowed material, but completely repurposing your own previous release (especially within a matter of days) makes the culture surrounding this music even more of a joke to an outsider looking in.
Tell us, do you think Tiësto and Don Diablo phoned it in on this collaboration, or do you think we were a little too hard on it? Sound off in the comments section below.
