‘Breakin’ A Sweat’ by Skrillex

Skrillex is twenty four year old American music producer Sonny John Moore. Following a moderately successful three year career fronting post-hardcore outfit From First to Last, Moore embarked on asolo electronic venture in 2007. Subsequent extensive touring of the underground electro scene gained Moore a soaring popularity, and Skrillex was formally born in summer 2010. Widely referred to as the Prince of Dubstep, Skrillex has amassed a Twitter fan base doubling that of contemporary electro royalty Steve Aoki and Diplo. But don’t take Twitter’s word for it. With no less than FIVE Grammy nominations for 2012, and a C.V. boasting A-List clientele such as Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, Skrillex is contributing in a big way towards bridging the gap between underground progessive-house/dubstep and the mainstream.

This Radio One advertisement features the anthemic Breakin’ A Sweat:

What sets Skrillex apart?

After all, the diminutive Californian is hardly the first to navigate a two step beat through what often sounds like a laser battle. Still, something about Skrillex obviously excited perhaps the biggest name in the laptop music world at the moment, Deadmau5, who signed Skrillex to the Mau5trap label on the strength of six track debut EP My Name Is Skrillex, released for free over MySpace in June 2010. In October of the same year, Skrillex released second EP Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites through Mau5trap. This release rocketed brand Skrillex to no fewer than 47 million YouTube hits, which secured enough momentum to see third EP More Monsters And Sprites (also 2011) win MTV’s prestigious Electro Dance Music award on December 12th, beating off competition for the honours from David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia, and Tiësto.

Less than a month later, December 27th saw the digital download release of Bangarang, Skrillex’ fourth and most commercially successful offering to date. Again only in seven track EP format, Bangarang’s chart success was head turning, taking 15th spot on the US Billboard 200 at the height of December’s Christmas sales -that’s just two behind Adele, and a full five places ahead of the massive Jay-Z and Kanye West collaboration Watch the Throne. It is not hard to see how this meteoric yet under the radar rise to stardom landed Skrillex the Alex Zane Radio One TV commercial in the UK.

Taken from Banagarang, the Radio One advertisement features the anthemic Breakin’ A Sweat. The pounding chorus line is perhaps the most accessible serving to be had at Skrillex’ veritable buffet of tectonic tunes, with tracks Right In and The Devil’s Den also thumping their way in to the hearts of those who like their dubstep in bold underlined capital letters. Final track Summit rounds the EP off nicely. Thanks to a relaxed vibe and the supple yet confident vocals of Ellie Goulding, Summit will no doubt find its way onto every Chilled Ibiza compilation going. One small step for Skrillex. One giant leap for dubstep in the mainstream.

Skrillex’ first studio album Voltage is due to drop in early 2012, in the mean time also check out Doctor P, Zomboy, and KOAN Sound.

Girls LOVE Skrillex!

I love girls and skrillex!

Will Dubstep Finally Die in 2012? Five Signs the End Is Near

For all the hype still surrounding it, dubstep won't be popular forever.

From collaborations with Korn to Christmas carol remixes, signs of its imminent demise are springing up all over the place. But will 2012 be the year that dubstep finally dies? Or will it desperately cling to life and linger like a zombie for another whole year?

Well, we here at Crossfade think that the Dubpocalypse is almost upon us. See the cut for five signs the end is near.



5. Nobody Even Knows What Dubstep Is Anymore
Talk to any "real dubstep fan" and they'll probably tell you that 2011 dubstep is not like true dubstep. They'll name-drop a few producers, mention something about the old days, and bemoan the evolution of Skrillex and brostep.

This friction between the "real dubstep fan" and angst-ridden teenagers over what actually constitutes dubstep sparked the genre's mid-life crisis. Plus, the average person's idea of dubstep retains neither the "dub" nor the "step" attributes for which the genre was named. The dub-style sub-bass was replaced by distorted mids and lots of wobble, while the two-step was basically abandoned in favor of someone screaming in your face for 40 minutes.

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4. Nearly Every Possible Dubstep Track Has Already Been Made
At some point in 2012, it will become impossible for producers to create a new, original dubstep track. It won't be for lack of creativity or trying. But there are only so many ways to arrange female vocals, a wobbly bass, and a huge drop. And we as a society are fast approaching these limits.

Thanks to the proliferation of music software in recent years and the deluge of newly minted musicians that followed, it became a race to see who could churn out the gnarliest wubs on their copy of Native Instruments' Massive synthesizer without straying too far from a particular structure. Rather than evolve organically, dubstep became homogenized, which meant many more musicians would have to cover the same ground.

Because of this, every possible variation on dubstep will soon be exhausted, every last temporal avenue explored, every possible combination of filter and LFO discovered. Very soon, there just won't be any more dubstep left to make.



3. Post-Dubstep Is the New Real Dubstep
Despite the mid-life crisis, artists like SBTRKT, Egyptrixx, and The Weeknd have been moving dubstep back towards its roots in the UK garage scene. Following their lead, many "real dubstep fans" finally accepted that the name dubstep had been co-opted. Together, they decided to move forward with post-dubstep.

It's too early to determine whether this is just a desperate attempt to save the genre's legacy. Or whether the post-dubstep movement will flourish with this newfound independence from brostep.



2. It's Been Tainted by the Mainstream
It was only a matter of time before mainstream music hijacked dubstep. But it would take more than a forgettable tracks by Britney Spears and Rihanna to subvert the genre. In 2011, word of a collaboration between Skrillex, Kill The Noise, and Korn hit the interwebs.

On the surface, collaborations between hot new artists and MTV relics may seem like harmless profiteering. And yeah, between getting bored, being broke, and running out of ideas, dubstep producers have every reason to sell out. But cashing in has its own consequences ... Would you listen to a Downlink/Nickelback track? What about Datsik/Creed?

Oh, and don't forget that Downlink and Datsik joined Korn on tour, further strengthening the newly christened union between dubstep and radio rock. Now the only place dubstep has left to go is the commercial rock 'n' roll airwaves, where music goes to die.



1. Dubstep Christmas Music Exists Don't look now ... But YouTube is chock full of shitty dubstep remixes of shitty Christmas songs. Scientifically speaking, when Christmas music invades another genre of music, the rate at which people start to hate that genre over time skyrockets!

To make matters worse, people are actually listening to these yuletide brostep abominations, presumably to piss off their parents, without regard for the sanctity of dubstep itself. And unfortunately, it's much too late to act. The first dubstep Christmas music appeared online in December 2010. By December 2011, the number of searches for "Christmas Dubstep" was up a staggering 1500 percent.

The statistics speak for themselves, and the diagnosis couldn't be clearer ... Acute Christmas music poisoning. All we can do now is try to make dubstep's last days comfortable.

WATCH: "Dubstep" guy SKRILLEX attacked by Bee on stage...

Womp Womp Womp! SKRILLEX brings the techno jams under the guise of dubstep all while making shitty haircut enthusiasts and the makers of Harry Cary sunglasses happy. Aside from looking like an idiot, he also moves like an idiot while chainsmoking and appearing to fuck his laptop. If the comedy didn't hit you right there, perhaps you haven't seen this image that's gone viral over the past few days featuring Sonny Moore trying to evade an animated bee. It's great. Seriously, kid - take a shower.

Korn Perform And Record Special Album Launch Show In LA

Nu-metal/dubstep mash-up band Korn performed a huge album launch show last week to mark the release of their pioneering metal/dubstep debut album ‘The Path of Totality’ – and it’s all been recorded in high quality for you to watch on YouTube, or embedded below.

The particularly controversial album, which has seen them stray from their metal roots and into the field of electronic music production, collaborating with the biggest names in dubstep (or brostep) like Skrillex, Excision and Datsik, is a far cry from the Korn of old and some of the more old school fans have been unhappy at the release.

But, frontman Jonathan Davis has claimed that fans should appreciate the new material and that Korn ‘were dubstep before there was dubstep’, and is totally a fan of their innovative new genre, which he calls a fusion of metal and dance. In reality, the album is totally marmite – it’s either loved by fans or hated by ex-fans. But what do Stereoboard users think of the record? Let us know in the comments section below.

Regardless of the thoughts on the new album, thousands of fans turned up to watch them perform in LA, armed with glowsticks and floppy hair. They appeared alongside their album collaborators Skrillex, Excision, Downlink and Datsik. Watch the performance below.

Skrillex - Scary Monster and Nice Sprites

This is in no way associated with punk, save for the fact that Skrillex, a.k.a, Sonny Moore, was the second singer in the band From First to Last, who were straddling that fine line anyway…

Dubstep is popular. It’s a form of electronic music that’s been around for over 15 years and is only now in its limelight as far as mainstream is concerned. From what I have read and noticed, Americans took what was once a flourishing, down-tempo, dubby/groovy based music and bastardized it into what is now known as, “Brostep.” Brostep, unlike traditional dubstep production styles that emphasize sub-bass content, accentuates the middle register and features "robotic fluctuations and metal-esque aggression" according to Wikipedia. An easier way to understand is to think of Transformers having sex with lots and lots of heavy dropped, WUB WUB WUB WUB, and you’ll have a good picture of what this is like.

Skrillex has become the scene leader and is often the reference point in this type of trendy music. His second EP, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, is what most people who have never listened to dubstep will probably get first. Brostep is to electronic music as beatdown hardcore is to…well hardcore, or deathcore to death metal, or country music to farting. There really isn’t any merit to this release except for the title track which is rather catchy and harmless. If you had to just pick one current dubstep type song to pretty much sum up the trend, this would be the one. Sampling the excited cry of the girl who became famous for stacking cups on YouTube, Moore ushers in a pretty brutal drop after letting listeners get a bit comfortable at the start of the song. If you ever wanted to just let it rip and show off to your friends, that first drop is nigh impossible to top for those with virgin ears listening to this “music.”

There isn’t any redeeming quality to this release. It is what it is; the proverbial nail in the coffin to what was once a decent sub-genre of electronic music. Despite what has happened, there are still some very good dubstep artists out there like Burial, James Blake, Benga, Milanese and Scuba. Those who like deathcore have now found something else to latch onto, and other acts like Korn have jumped onto the bandwagon, thus releasing their recent dubstep influenced album, The Path of Totality. And from what’s happening currently in the scene, expect the Biebs to be using this on his next release. 2012 is around the corner…

Grandpa Hates Skrillex, Dances To Foster The People (VIDEO)

A lot of eyebrows were raised when Skrillex was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist last week. After all, not every mainstream music fan listens to dubstep -- let alone knows what it is -- and so the inclusion of a word that sounds like a nifty device for brunch making was quite curious to some indeed.

Before the nomination was even announced, YouTube user TheRedGibson22 decided that his 90-year old grandfather Al should get acquainted with the beats of a new generation. He did a good job trying to understand the sound coming from his grandson's computer, but he wasn't much of a fan.

"Not to be nasty, but is that considered to be music that's popular with teenagers?" Al asked. "We don't understand one word they're saying."

To be fair, the guy's seemingly far cooler than most 90-year olds: he wasn't rejecting Skrillex for Sinatra, but because he couldn't dance to it. Thankfully, Foster the People came on next, and all was right with the world.

Zomboy stole Skrillex's sound

Anyone here of "Zomboy"? If you look up any of his songs on Youtube you will immediately hear that Zomboy not only stole Skrillex's style... but stole direct sounds from his songs. He didn't even have the intelligence to change the sound a little... it's just blatant theft. And the best part is... he is saying that he didn't steal anything and has made the sounds himself. Even if that is true (which we all know it isn't) why would he want to sound EXACTLY like Skrillex? It pisses me off and it should piss you off too. Let everyone know that Zomboy is a fake and a pale imitation of Skrillex. If I was Skrillex, I would seriously look into copyright infringement.

What do you guys think?

Touching Bass: Breakage

Digital Soundboy’s, Breakage, has tiptoed ever so gracefully through a number of searing genres in his time. Whether it be the bass-heavy musings of 2006’s ‘This Too Shall Pass’ or the 80s influenced/90s Ibiza house of his new, upcoming project. Yes, you read correctly, 90s Ibiza house.

Let’s go straight into that then. Your album?

My album. New album and it’s my third. It should be out next year and I’ll have a date for release when it’s finished, but it’s getting there. it’s all come together really in the last couple of months I would say with really good vocals and stuff like that, but I’m not gonna say any more than that. A lot of stuff that people might not expect of me. At the moment, it’s somewhere between an 80s sci-fi soundtrack and 90s Ibiza house.

So you’re obviously very influenced by the 80s?

Yeah, I love the 80s. I was born in the 80s and I think when you reach a certain age, you get this wave of nostalgia so all I really listen to is old soundtracks, and I listen to a lot of soundtracks anyway. I really like ‘em. I also watch a lot of movies when I make tunes. So, pretty much every tune on the album, there’s a movie behind them – whether it relates to them or not is a totally different thing – but, chances are there was a film in the background while the tune was being made.

What films are we talking?

There’s a few random ones and crap ones like ‘Home Alone 2’.

‘Home Alone 2’ is a great film!

It is, and my missus watches it all the time. She’ll watch it every week if she can. Any 80s sequel, she will watch. If it’s a rom-com or a comedy. Can’t forget ‘Sister Act 2’, she loves that. But mostly for me, films like ‘A Clockwork Orange’, anything that looks great. There’s a couple of tracks that are blatantly from an 80s movie scenario, but then there’s all sorts of stuff in there as well, like a couple of house tunes. Thing is, with dance music, you get known for that one thing that you do. So years ago, I was really known for doing drum & bass and then I started making dubstep as well and people were like ‘ergh!’. It’s all a different tempo and apparently a dirty thing to do. So now I want to go and do a bit of house and probably some over stuff. I mean, there’s stuff that’s like 90BPM on there. So I’ve always made different types of music anyway. My first album, the whole 2nd CD was just random stuff, that I made during the year it took me to make the album. I always made these weird tunes, which in this day and age people embrace.

So about the scene, it’s all so very diverse right now. Could that ever not be a good thing?

It’s just brilliant. I love the fact that you’re getting stuff where people are like ‘what is it?’. Who cares? You don’t sit down and analyse any over music by its tempo apart from dance music. It’s just like ’shut up’. If you like it, you like it, if you don’t, you don’t. Simple. I think the whole genre thing has gone out of control. I don’t often, but I YouTube’d myself the other day and the ‘Fighting Fire’ video came up and there was a big argument running for months about whether it was house or electro or dubstep. Who cares? Personally, I don’t think things like YouTube and forums are good for it. It’s such a powerful thing and if someone says a tune is rubbish, everyone else will say the same just to look cool and agree. I preferred it when you used to go into a record shop and listen to the radio and be like’ I like this tune, what is it?’ It was as simple as that.

You must get nostalgic about those days then?

Yeah, I guess that’s why my stuff is how it is. I definitely think things have become a bit too samey. Someone like Skrillex will make that kind of sound, and everyone wants to jump on that and will play an hour of it. You can take elements of things and use them. The way the main part of ‘dubstep’ is going now, I can’t tell the difference, apart from Skrillex. You can hear a lot of people going over to that side, but not doing it as well. The whole Skrillex thing is a marmite subject anyway. I don’t think it’s personally my cup of tea, but I’m not like ‘ergghhhh’. I know everyone says this, but he’s actually the loveliest guy you will ever meet. That’s why I can’t fault him.

But enough about other people, let’s talk a bit more about yourself. We have to talk about the advert…

Which advert? Ahhh, see no one knows – and I haven’t said this before because it’s really funny – but I’ve done another advert before the Renault one. I actually did last year’s music for the O2 campaign.

No way?

Yeah, it wasn’t dubstep or anything; it was just pianos and little bleepy sounds. It was the O2 advert that was talking about phoning your relatives or something and all the words were up in the sky. It was all pianos and violins. So yeah, I did that which I’ve kept under my hat till now and then the Renault advert. I don’t even know how it happened. It’s just a licensing thingy, so I don’t get told about it. I remixed it because it’s obviously not my track, but I literally didn’t know about it and then I started seeing little things on Twitter and stuff saying ’smashed it on the Renault thing’ and I was like ‘what?’ Then, I was at the studio and went to get some food and they had a TV in the place where I was waiting for my chicken katsu and I turned round and heard the intro to it. Then I just saw like Thierry Henry and all the others and was just like to myself, ‘what the f***!’ I went back and went on YouTube and was just like ‘oh my God, I’m on that advert’. Then, within a few weeks people were asking if I’d seen it and all of that. Even my mum knows! It’s really weird.

You must have been real happy about it though?

I was, I was. I’m still waiting for some other. The most impressive one will be Eastenders. When I get my tune on Eastenders, I can retire.

I look forward to that! What have you got coming up, in terms of releases and stuff?

Got a remix coming out of the next Florence & The Machine single. A track called ‘No Light, No Light’. Then there’s a single coming out which I played a bit earlier; a bit of a weird half-techno, half-breakbeat thing. It’s called ‘Telepathy’ at the moment. It’s like a 4/4 old techno tune and it changes back and forth. Really baffles me, and I think it’s hilarious. First time I played it, even Stamina MC was like, ‘I thought it was a mix’. And he was going on about how the switch just works, and he went and did a vocal in the end. So that’s the second single from the album, the first obviously being ‘Fighting Fire’. But saying that, it will be on the album, but I don’t think it counts as a first single from the album. This one will be the first one where I’m like ‘let’s get the ball rolling’ sort of, dance-floor orientated thing before anything vocal related. I want to try and keep both sides happy because some people do like to moan and say ‘ahh, you just make vocal tunes now’, but I’m like, ‘no, we can do instrumentals too’.

Don't Know the Difference Between Dubstep and Brostep?

Dubstep might be the new heavy metal. It's dark, it's aggressive, and it's already conquered North American suburbs with little mainstream media support. Born in the clubs of south London in the early oughties, Dubstep is a hybrid of dub, drum and bass, and glitchy electronica. At its most inoffensive, it's moody restaurantica. At its best, it's an obnoxiously fun and angry assault on your ears; the kind that makes you say, "What is this shit? That's not music," just like every generation of old people has uttered when they were confronted with a new and exciting musical genre.

Maybe you love it, maybe you hate it, maybe you've never heard of it. Regardless, it's impossible to ignore anymore as it's gradually popping up everywhere. You'll hear a Rusko song between whistles at sporting events, read a great review of Burial on your favourite blog, see a hilarious YouTube video with a dubstep score or watch a stripper dance to a Skream remix of La Roux at the No5 Orange (it was an incredibly classy performance). And it's only going to keep spreading. This past week, Justin Bieber announced his next album is going to include some dubstep while the biggest name in the genre, Skrillex, was receiving five Grammy nominations -- including Best New Artist.

Skrillex, who seemingly appeared overnight, is so huge YouTube will probably make you sit through a Procter & Gamble ad for VapoRub or a digital pregnancy test before you can watch his excellent video for "First of the Year (Equinox)" (It received a Grammy nomination for Best Short Form Music Video). Or maybe give a listen to this one, "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites," which is closing in on a stupefying 50 million views. To give you a little perspective, the first single from Jay-Z and Kanye West's album Watch the Throne has nearly 30 million views. Skrillex is a pop star that's never had his music played on commercial radio or television.

In his previous life, when he was 18, Skrillex went by his given name Sonny Moore and was the lead singer of screamo band From First to Last (Yep, that's him screamo-ing.) Now practically geriatric at 23, it only seems fitting that a kid who was signed to Epitaph Records and played the Warped Tour is the one to triumphantly bring dubstep from the trendy areas of London to the Hot Topics of every mall in suburban America. Feel old and out of touch yet? I sure do, and I'm the one writing about this shit.
Purists of the dubstep genre, of course, hate him. They say he looks like a jackass and his music lacks subtly; that it's too in your face. His sound has petulantly been labeled brostep -- the connotation being that only jockish idiots and frat boys listen to it. Having observed his fans closely when Skrillex was in Vancouver for two sold out shows at the PNE Forum in October, I'll attest that they do look suspiciously like participants in the Stanley Cup Riot, only groovier. But maybe hockey's not the violent sports reference I should be making. The dubstep snob's critique of his music is comparable to a boxing fan ragging on MMA Fighting. Can't we just all agree that, so long as someone’s face or ears get viciously maimed, it's great entertainment?

On the Charts: She and Him, the Killers Score With Christmas Pop

WINNER OF THE WEEK: Christmas music on iTunes. In a slow, post-Black Friday, pre-last-minute-shopping week, five albums on iTunes' Top 10 had holiday themes: the Killers' (RED) Christmas, She and Him's A Very She and Him Christmas, Glee's Christmas album and, of course, the lingering smashes by Michael Bublé and Justin Bieber. Interestingly, nary a holiday single made iTunes' top songs list, a phenomenon for which we have two theories. One is that cool, exclusive holiday singles such as My Morning Jacket's "When the Bells Start Ringing" and Kelly Clarkson's "I'll Be Home for Christmas" won't chart until next week. Another is that iTunes is packed with quality singles these days by specialists such as Bruno Mars, Rihanna, LMFAO and Katy Perry, so it's hard for Christmas novelties to squeeze them off the singles list. However, the week was pretty barren for hot new album releases.

LOSER OF THE WEEK: Rock music. Rather than knocking on Nickelback again – although, for the record, we did name the Canadian pop-metal goons "Winner of the Week" last time – we'll just use their album Here and Now as yet more evidence that the band's genre is no longer a chart  phenomenon. Over and over this year, from Cake to Coldplay, we've seen rock albums make strong Top 10 debuts then drop precipitously a week later. It's happening with Nickelback, too – with 78,000 in sales this week, the band dropped 66 percent, from Number Two to Number Five. That's despite a massive jump of 42 slots up the most recent Ultimate Chart, which measures online stuff such as YouTube views and Facebook likes, to Number Seven. Here's a clue to the big second-week decline: their "When We Stand Together" video landed more than 39 million YouTube views in its first week (it came out on November 23rd) but has slightly fewer than 41 million views today. To recap: 39 million in one week, two million the next. Not good.

THE GRAMMY NOMINATION BOOST?: Grammy nominations came out too late last week to place on the conventional charts, but we received an interesting list from Facebook regarding its "fastest-growing musicians, actors and songs." (We presume this refers to the fastest-growing popularity of musicians, actors and songs and not that, like, Rihanna is suddenly 75 feet tall.) The Top Three "most-listened-to songs" aren't too surprising – Rihanna, Katy Perry, LMFAO – but farther down the list are things such as thrash-dancer Skrillex's "First of the Year" and "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" and David Guetta's collaboration with Sia, "Titanium." This leads us to believe that the nominations served their purpose, at least in part, to help people learn about interesting new music that they might not have discovered otherwise amid the pop dominance of Lady Gaga and Adele.

Skrillex's Best New Artist nomination: One small step for dubstep, or one giant leap away from artistry?

When Skrillex, a 23 year-old dance-music producer from Los Angeles whose real name is Sonny Moore, nabbed the final Best New Artist slot at last night’s Grammy Nominations Concert, more than a few people balked:

Who is this Skill-rex person/band, and why has he/she/they taken away the nomination from my beloved (insert act here)?!

But other people were much more excited about his nomination (this is a real, if not strictly grammatical reaction from his official Facebook page):

Your  f–king amazing! I hope you win each and every one of those Grammy’s, you deserve it! F–k the haters that say otherwise, your dope as f–k!!!!!!

Truth is, if you aren’t still on the Party Rock circuit, you’ve likely never heard of Skrillex, the dubstep wunderkind whose trancey EPs blare at raves and festivals across the country and whose personal YouTube uploads have racked up over 190 million views. To the tech-savvy Gen-Zers, though, for whom thumping bass rumbles and beep-bop-boop remixes are commonplace, Skrillex is a god among DJs. (Somewhere, P!nk is totally confused by that line.)

Perhaps the Grammys were attempting to reach out to the youth demographic that every awards show so desperately desires by giving Skrillex a Best New Artist slot. Or perhaps they simply wanted to acknowledge the rise of dubstep/dance music by awarding him five nominations and giving deadmau5 three of his own. Or perhaps Grammy voters really just love Skrillex. (I mean, he clearly shares a lot of fans with last year’s Best New Artist winner, Esperanza Spalding, right?)

No matter what the reasoning, though, some people — you know, the kind who prefer guitars and pianos and lyrics (fogies!) –  just can’t consider Skrillex a legitimate music artist. They hear tracks like the one below and wonder, “Is this music or just noise?” (and also: “Get off my lawn!”):