Review Summary: In "Bangarang", Sonny proves Skrillex to be a joke, and one that is no longer funny.
Sonny Moore (the not so masterful mind behind Skrillex) doesn’t seem to understand the concept of change, of evolving, of musical improvement. I can understand that ‘Scary Monster and Nice Sprites’ was a popular song, and I can understand why Sonny might decide to model a few songs after it due to its popularity. What I can’t understand is why he, even now, refuses to do anything new with his overall musical formula, still basing everything on an already overused formula (found in that song). Skrillex’s musical style is as follows: the raping of dubstep to create the loudest bass drops possible, which are often accompanied by bright synthesizers, loud beats, pitch shifted vocal samples, and a cluster*** of extremely glitchy sounds. Although this resulted in some catchy, fun songs, one can’t help wondering if Skrillex can make decent songs outside of this formula.
Bangarang proves this to be a serious problem, with ‘Right In’, ‘Bangarang’, and ‘The Devil’s Den’ being the most enjoyable songs here because they follow Skrillex’s formula to the letter. They aren’t even that good, but they’re certainly better than anything else here. In this EP there’s the obvious club number, ‘Breakn’ A Sweat’, the pathetic ‘Right On Time’ (a song that builds up to the point of ridiculousness, ultimately going nowhere), and ‘Summit’, a boring, failed house song. Oh, and there’s ‘Kyoto’, which is a carbon copy of Skrillex’s song, ‘Ruffneck (Flex)’. There are next to no new ideas here. One could make the argument of consistency, but in this case, laziness is more accurate. The definition of a one-trick pony? Ask Skrillex.
