Overview
Dubstep offering from Sonny John Moore (a.k.a. Skrillex), former lead singer of "From First to Last" - an American post-hardcore band. Following this musical turnaround, Skrillex has released several albums of material on his website, with the Bangarang E.P. being the most recent.
Major Points
Catchy - Although the chosen genre will alienate some straight away, the heavy bass and choppy melodies are quite enjoyable and can easily get stuck in your head.
"Breaking A Sweat" is a particularly good example of this, co-produced with the surviving members of The Doors:
Slick Mix - This guy has clearly picked up the skills on the decks pretty quickly since he stopped screaming into a microphone: the album is well put-together and crisply edited. Treble synth pulls into a climax before the deep, wobbling bass throbs in to harmonise.
Free Sample? - The only major gripe with the album is that it loses some of the fresh punch in the later tracks, and this may be due to the limited sample sets. The samples in each track are used repetitively and frequently, often feeling unnecessary ("Right on time, right on time...."). Using a wider selection of samples, or allowing the synth to take more of the tune would allow the tracks to hold my attention for longer.
Conclusion
Fresh - the EP feels new, vibrant and is great fun to listen to a few times.
Overused samples - the major downside is that this vibrancy is lost when the same sample is repeated endlessly. This may be to keep Skrillex's dubstep-cred up, but it doesn't work too well in this album.
Potential - Given that this is still early work for Skrillex, and as this album is well produced and conceived, there is a lot of potential for more excellent tuneage from Mr. Moore.
Videos on this website and should be copyright of the video uploader. Album art copyright of Skrillex and taken from: http://store.wearebigbeat.com/category/store/artists/sonny-moore-skrillex/
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