Rating 5/10

Listen. I’ll start off by saying I’m as on the fence with the newest Skrillex release, entitled Bangarang, as I have been with all the others. The guy is an exciting producer, and the voice samples/hooks he’s used are unforgettable. However, as with his other releases, the mid-register robotesque bass lines, four to the floor beats, and general feel are the same as they ever were and absolutely forgettable. You’ve got the electronic industry by the balls, Skrillex, and the time to fix your broken record is nigh.

When Skrillex became an instant success, and his songs could be heard everywhere, I was impressed with the mash up of genre’s with him and Korn in the Korn single “Get Up“, and really enjoyed "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" and “Kill Everybody” off of Skrillex’s EP with the same name Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites. It seemed like a fresh, American take on the dubstep scene. That fresh take quickly turned into endless copycats and the post dubstep sub-genre dubbed “brostep”. As the forerunner of this new trend, Skrillex didn’t impress me with his first release, mildly did with his second release, and fails to with his newest.

There are definitely moments of production clarity on Bangarang in the title track (a song referencing the movie Hook?! Awesome!) and the non-bass line heavy house song “Right On Time“, but he even uses a broke up, syncopated, unintelligible, Asian sounding voice on the track “Summit” juuuust like he did on the track “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites”. In a nutshell, Bangarang should be entitled Sonic the Househog On Crack. It’s got a Sonic the Hedgehog music + house + brostep sound on most of the songs on the seven song EP. If you are already a die-hard Skrillex fan (and I know you are out there as I just read the comment “Skrillex is life.“ from a fan on Skrillex’s Facebook page), you are going to absolutely love this album. If you haven’t ever heard Skrillex, and are into dubstep, you are probably going to like this album. The rest of us will either like it, dislike it, or think it’s OK (Mitch Hedberg anyone?). It does have bass drops and a couple buildups/breakdowns that make you smile with delight, so even after I write this review.....I’m still on the fence.

The title track:
[youtube]xM2EBT9C6WI[/youtube]

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I'm definitely not a huge fan of dubstep because very few producers can pull off original melodies that flow through the entire song, drop included.

Skrillex seems to be one of the few dubstep producers who does this well from time to time. I'll agree that he does use elements from other songs in his new stuff quite frequently.

I too am on the fence but I cure that by simply looking at everything from a song to song point of view, instead of EP's or albums as a whole. Not entirely sure how to word what I think about Skrillex but I guess I'm satisfied with some of his stuff

I completely agree. It made this the hardest review I have had to write, yet.

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Featured. Apparently the other editors took the holidays off as well...

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Imagine a perfect beach
Without a mermaid
Imagine a perfect hideaway
Without a time
Imagine a perfect Eden
Without a friend, without a serpent
"Feeling lonely and content at the same time,
I believe, is a rare kind of happiness"

Unfortunately, Skrillex is in fact not dubstep and refers to himself specifically as more of an electronica-type producer. Just because there are a few bass drops does not necessarily make it dubstep.

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and this is me testing fun stuff.

Exactly why I mentioned brostep.

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I'm also not a big fan of Skrillex, although I do admit I like some of his more popular songs (for example "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites") but from what I have noticed within the present time his popularity is not that big. Granted this is just a general observation from amongst my friends, and other acquaintances on the internet but it does influence my opinion.

An artist I like more is Big Chocolate, he incorporates more vocal samples into his music and is more pleasant to listen to for an extended period of time with its dance-type beat.

Listening to Skrillex's new material, and more specifically the song embedded above and a few others from his latest work, he has made progress in this genre. Although it is not the worst, I would not say that it is the best. Overall, it is still pleasant release on his part, and I look forward to more and improved EPs and Albums from him!

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I listened to..

[youtube]UzHFi-CbXko[/youtube]

When I played RS or Jog. >_>

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and this is me testing fun stuff.

I think he is very talented. I just wish all his didn't sound the same. He's got it in him to do something that will effect electronic music, like Daft Punk did. So far, it's been a so-so ride, but I have hopes it will get better.

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