Monday, May 21, 2012

Skrillex Matures with "Bangarang".





Sonny John Moore a.k.a Skrillex, the sole member of the band takes the next step with his latest EP "Bangarang".  Though Bangarang overall is not as hard-hitting as "My Name is Skrillex", and "Monsters...", the eight tracks show Moore's continuing maturity with cleaner sequences and even an ambient track.
Moore continues his use with the unique spliced Transformers vocals and the unforgettable style of dubstep that propelled him to become a force to be reckoned with, and also earned him three, yes three Grammys!
Skrillex is breaking the Electronic genre mold that is too often plagued with the plethora of wanabe DJs spewing out the same cookie cutter progressions.  Most promising electronic artists start with an album that has their signature fresh style.  Unfortunately, too many of them then jump on the bandwagon and do nothing but remix others' works.  Not Skrillex!
Bangarang is refined and clean.  While "Scary Monsters" shook your body to the core with super-low frequencies and mash-up splices, Banarang removes much of the un-cohesive  noise and gets to the meat of what makes Electronica/Dubstep the great new Genre that it is today.
The Break-Down:
  • 8 tracks
  • Bangarang EP originally released on BeatPort.
  • My favorites (in order);  (7) - Summit (Feat. Ellie Goulding), (2) - Bangarang (Feat. Sirah),  (6) - Kyoto (Feat. Sirah),
Truly surprising is "Summit", featuring Ellie Goulding.  For you die-hard Dubstep fans Summit is not going to get your blood pumping.  This 140bps song is true ambient and minimalist.  Comprising of a rich deep 4th-note base rythm, it's accompanied with some simple voice samples and even full-length sentence samples from Ellie Goulding (yes Dubstep with full sentence vocals).  Since I'm a sucker for Ambient, it's my top pick.  It's because of this track it shows Skrillex is going to keep reinventing his sound and keeping the fans coming back for more.

Up next is the self-titled "Bangarang" track.  Starting with some cool guitar rifts, it quickly kicks into high-gear with Skrillex's signature mash-up samples and hard distorted base synths.  Complementing this track, and others in Bangarang, are vocals from Sirah.  Sirah is an Indie rapper that is best visually described by taking Skrillex's half-shaved hair cut and mating it with a younger burnette Lady Gaga (minus the meat suit). Keep your eye on Sirah.  Although most times Electronica does not need vocals to make a good song, Sirah is glue to Bangarang.  Dubstep fans will find themselves playing this track over and over and over...

Finally, "Kyoto".  It intros with Adam Freeland-style beats and a good rhythm.  Then Sirah gives Skrillex the go ahead to bitch-slap their listeners with the lows, the highs and everything in between.  Sirah breaks in the middle of the song with her rhymes  It's what you love!

Skrillex did collaborate with the Doors on "Breakn' A Sweat".  Although a video was made for it, I believe Moore could have done better on this one.  It would be a great track without the Doors.  Just not a big fan of the Doors...  (Sorry Toby).

Overall, if you like Dubstep don't hesitate to get this album.  And remember, settle for nothing less than some good in-ear headphones or a really good audio system with crazy subs when listening to this.  Enjoy!