Dancing Astronaut’s Breakout Artist of 2023: Mau P – Dancing Astronaut
by: Ross Goldenberg
Dec 18, 2023
Flip the clock again to this time final 12 months.
Mau P was but to be a reputation that dance music’s home majority was acquainted with. However as of December 2023, it even rings a bell for the typical dance music fan.
Nonetheless, one thing most could not know is that solely the identify is new. Maurice West—the musical alias underneath which Maurits Westveen labored for almost a decade—outright dominated bigroom all through the latter half of the 2010’s. By the late 2010’s and early 2020’s, Westveen had already begun experimenting exterior of the style that was then far faraway from its heyday, though it had stopped transferring the needle for him career-wise. The pandemic offered him the best alternative to take a step again, ask an vital query, and reply it actually: had the Maurice West venture reached its ceiling?
The answer? Begin from scratch. Doing so freed him of the inventive restriction he felt and the fragile balancing act of manufacturing and DJing the music he wished whereas tapping additional into his underground facet and managing expectations from his then present viewers. Many artists wouldn’t have chosen this path as a result of, on paper, it’s a high-risk, high-reward state of affairs. However Mau P, who already had a decade of expertise navigating the dance panorama underneath his belt, was greater than comfy betting on himself. A 12 months and a half later, threat has given solution to reward by a collection of irrefutable achievements that culminate in Mau P’s distinction as Dancing Astronaut’s 2023 Breakout Artist of the Yr. With it, he follows within the footsteps of artists like ISOxo and Knock2 (2022), John Summit (2021), Moore Kismet (2020), and Dom Dolla (2019), who’ve earned the title lately.
This unreleased monitor @johnsummit dropped at Lolla is an absolute banger 👀
Mau P (@djmauricewest’s alias) “Medicine From Amsterdam” out 8/19 on @RepopulateMars
(🎥: @masonrippel) pic.twitter.com/83cRY90o3N
— Dancing Astronaut (@dancingastro) August 3, 2022
When 2023 started, Mau P had however one launch to his new venture. However as a result of we’d been following the Maurice West venture since its earliest days, we’ll take a second to pat ourselves on the again. Naming that sole single, “Medicine From Amsterdam,” as certainly one of our Prime Tracks of 2022 in tandem with a then-unreleased ID—which made its manner into Dancing Astronaut’s most-anticipated IDs of 2023 checklist—have been all we would have liked to see to earn a nod into Dancing Astronaut’s Artists to Watch in 2023.
The “Medicine From Amsterdam” explosion occurred due to the veteran expertise that was behind it, with him explaining that he blindly despatched it out to DJs like John Summit and Tchami with the understanding that they wouldn’t have acknowledged the Mau P identify and that there have been minimal probabilities of it really making it onto their USBs.
Just some weeks faraway from appearances at each Correct NYE/NYD and Countdown NYE—his first pair of U.S. exhibits as Mau P—Mau P cashed in on “Gimme That Bounce” to get his Breakout Artist of the Yr marketing campaign rolling. And after setting out a debut North American headline tour instantly after the discharge of “Gimme That Bounce,” Mau P’s inventory snowballed.
“GIMME THAT BOUNCE” JANUARY 27 🔥@realmaup is lastly dropping it
One in all our artists to look at in 2023 with certainly one of our most-anticipated IDs of 2023
(🎥: a_tom_vision/IG) pic.twitter.com/oN7VKPlfgv
— Dancing Astronaut (@dancingastro) January 14, 2023
Between racking up pageant slots on the likes of EDC Las Vegas and Tomorrowland to remixing legends like Calvin Harris, Armand Van Helden, and Swedish Home Mafia, to releasing on Consultants Solely, Black E book Information, and Dancing Astronaut’s reigning Label of the Yr Afterlife—particularly “Metro,” which was named the most-played monitor at Tomorrowland this 12 months—to having his music performed out by nearly each DJ conceivable, Mau P was categorically inescapable in 2023. The total-circle moments got here in spades, and if all of that wasn’t spectacular sufficient, Mau P turned EDC Orlando’s stereoBLOOM (a facet stage) into an alternate major stage, pulling in an estimated 15,000 folks for his set alone.
And sure, whereas he’d already had the footing within the trade to offer his rebrand a propulsive preliminary push, he constructed up a wholly new fan base—as evidenced by his self-started Discord server, which incorporates greater than 1,200 members on the time of writing—that wasn’t solely conscious of what he’d been doing beforehand. Whereas his music retains hints of bigroom affect, he’s cultivated a novel id that’s allowed him to attach with the dance neighborhood in a manner and at a scale that’s distinctly completely different from the Maurice West days.
His time as Maurice West couldn’t be thought of a failure by any stretch of the creativeness; it was foundational to his first 12 months as Mau P, which noticed him attain milestone after milestone–achievements that he might have solely dreamed of if not for his choice to take an opportunity on himself. Fittingly, Mau P is already making ready for a 2024 run that may solely additional his ascension from Dancing Astronaut Artist to Watch in 2023 to Dancing Astronaut’s 2023 Breakout Artist of the Yr, teasing what reigns as his single most-awaited ID, “Beats For The Underground,” whereas planning a February date at New York Metropolis’s Knockdown Center, a March date at The Caverns, and lots extra nonetheless to return.
With out additional ado, we need to formally congratulate Mau P on a prolific rise this previous 12 months that dance music hasn’t seen too usually in latest reminiscence in addition to his well-earned title of our 2023 Breakout Artist of the Yr.
Featured picture: Tommy Reerink
Classes: Music