Listen to the longest deadmau5 song ever released

Cupe · October 22, 2016

Joel Zimmerman often defies the four-minute boundaries within which most commercially successful artists confine their songs. However, while deadmau5 songs quite often transcend the six and seven minute marks, it’s less common for them to break into double digits. In 2006, Zimmerman released deadmau5 Circa 1998-2002, a compilation of music he produced surrounding the turn of the millennium under his old pseudonym, Halcyon441.

The compilation includes the longest deadmau5 song to yet be released, entitled “Hiatus Fantasy” (or “Haitus Fantasy,” as it was originally spelled). Spanning over thirteen minutes in length, “Hiatus Fantasy” was apparently inspired by Final Fantasy; through energetic tempos, and ethereal sound design, the song retains the video game sensibilities which led Zimmerman to create it.

In 2014, deadmau5 noted that “Somewhere Up Here” has usurped the honor of being his longest track, at over fifteen minutes-long. However, the version of the song which appeared on while (1<2) was shortened to five minutes, allowing “Hiatus Fantasy” to retain the distinction of Zimmerman’s most extensive track to see a release. In the Reddit thread where deadmau5 remarked about the length of “Somewhere Up Here,” he also quipped that the sound engineering of his Final Fantasy homage “sounds like SHIT,” and entertained the notion of reworking its sound design. Though deadmau5 has yet to release an updated version of “Hiatus Fantasy,” one may be on the horizon at some point in the future.