On the morning of January 1st, 2023, I woke up to a familiar yet barren wasteland of new Skrillex music. Mostly offshoot singles and production credits here and there for the last eight years or so. Is there an artist that you love that, comparatively, barely releases music? Every time they all of a sudden post some sort of content, the fanbase detective team arises to stitch together any sort of meaning that just might lead to info on a new single or even a project. Frank Ocean comes to mind. For me, that artist is Skrillex. ~2 PM that same day rolled around and nothing was ever the same. In a time when essentially all hope was lost, the unthinkable happened.
Skrillex (Sonny Moore) announced his second album on New Year’s Day via his social media platforms with an album teaser captioned “QFF/DGTC ‘23.” With the caption being split in such a manner, the talk of the town is that Sonny is releasing two albums. Some time ago during an Instagram Live, Skrillex mentioned finishing up his “albums” which gave much hope at the time. With different logos from the cover art of recent singles (comparing the ILL logos on Supersonic and Too Bizarre) that make an appearance and transition over the course of the album teaser video, I’m thinking one album will be more “producer” based, and the second being the heavier, wubbier EDM album that we all know and love from Skrillex.
Although there’s no confirmation on the titles of the albums, the “DGTC” half is rumored to stand for “Don’t Get Too Close” as months ago Skrillex posted a since-deleted picture of him as a child on Instagram with the aforementioned potential name as the post’s caption.
Skrillex started his album rollout by releasing the long-awaited single “Rumble” co-produced by Fred Again.. and vocals from Flowdan. The track was heard on Instagram stories from Sonny and Fred a few months back, and it became popularized when Fred Again.. spun it during his already iconic Boiler Room set. The mix on this track is stupidly good. It uses silence to its advantage in between drops that make the bouncy bass line hit that much harder. The next day, “Way Back” featuring PinkPantheress and Trippie Redd dropped. The glowy, liquid drum and bass sound of this single screams Skrillex and it has me really excited for the “producer” side of the album. The stark differences in sound and key traits on the singles’ art imply each single is one from each album. Along with the drops, Sonny played 3 shows in a row in London with b2b2b trio Fred Again.. and Four Tet.
It’s been nearly a full decade since Skrillex released his last solo album. Recess (2014) is a top-three album for me. The level of influence that Skrillex has had on the electronic scene is basically immeasurable. Everybody and their mother went through a Skrillex phase in 2013; “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” and “Bangarang” are throwback bangers. Sonny made dubstep accessible and somewhat more digestible to the masses. His production is like no other, combining elements from completely different genres and molding them into something that sounds iconically Skrillex. With the lack of consistent releases and live shows, this return comes with a massive wave of nostalgia that seriously has me excited to my core. Make sure to keep up with our blog posts as I’ll be updating throughout the album rollout, as well as a review at the end.
Stream “Rumble” and “Way Back”, below!
Words by Arthur Siwek
