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Source Material: Skrillex, 'Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites' playlist.Skrillex, it seems, was made for memes. From Hipster Runoff to the self-explanatory Tumblr blog Girls That Look Like Skrillex, the electro-dubstep upstart -- or at least the version imagined by snarks and Cheeto-munching forum monkeys -- leads a vibrant second life in avatar-land.
The latest viral emanation from planet Skrillex happened in December, when the man born Sonny Moore posted a YouTube clip of Aphex Twin's "Flim" to his Facebook page, accompanied by the note, "my favorite song of all time fyi." (Gotta love that "fyi," especially coming from a guy who's never worked an office job in his life.) His evangelism clearly had an effect: since then, the post has accrued 8,325 comments (and counting). A few listeners, though, felt like there was something missing from Aphex Twin's chiming electronic balladry, as indicated in comments like these:
"i was hoping for a drop."The drop, as any fan of today's super-sized stadium rave could tell you, is the moment in a dance track, right after the breakdown (a tension-building passage, often beatless, characterized by whooshing white noise), when the bass and drums return with supersonic impact, a brick wall of sound that contorts faces and jumbles guts. That roller-coaster path from extreme to extreme defines much mainstream club music right now, and many listeners, it would seem, don't ever want to get off the ride.
"Still waiting for the drop.......no?"
"I was waiting for a drop that never happnd lol"
"i didnt even here a nice drop-___-....i thought it was suppose to have atleast a good drop?????"
Some wag cut and pasted all the drop-related comments into a single thread, making it look like Skrillex fans are nothing more than thrill-seekers with tin ears. Some of them surely are; you find them everywhere. But that's not (entirely) Skrillex's fault.
Whatever your feelings about the result, the guy seems genuinely dedicated to introducing his fans to the music that inspired his own. In interviews, he's bigged up not just obvious touchstones like The Prodigy and Nine Inch Nails, but also Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and even Autechre. Using his 2011 EP, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, as a launching pad, we've fleshed out his list of influences and listed a few more records without which Skrillex might never have gotten his bumper car out of the gate.
Nitzer EbbThat Total Age
When Marilyn Manson first painted his fingernails black, he may have been doing it to this very album. Inspired by the dancefloor beats of Soft Cell and the industrial textures of D.A.F., 1987's That Total Age helped pave the way for Nine Inch Nails and the aforementioned Antichrist Superstar. "Join in the Chant" was a hit in all dark clubs where cloves were smoked. [Eric Shea]
Nine Inch NailsPretty Hate Machine
This 1989 debut would set the stage for an industrial revolution. Drawing from the metallic menace of bands like Skinny Puppy and Ministry, as well as the post-punk paranoia of Joy Division, Trent Reznor created a masterpiece, a well-oiled machine run on keyboards, drum machines, guitars and samples that, somewhat ironically, released a beast of raw emotion. The only things to remind us a human is behind this madness are those feverish howls and those lyrics of existential dread, all fed straight from the self-loathing depths of Reznor's boiling psyche. [Stephanie Benson]
MinistryThe Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste
Ministry's debut album was pretty tame, compared to what came later -- vaguely sneering New Wave mixed with punk-funk à la Duran Duran. The Land of Rape and Honey was more abrasive, as you'd guess, but The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste was something else entirely, from its blastbeats and metal guitars to acid-house sample play and echoes of the doom-core rave then happening over in Belgium. It's all gloriously overblown, but it also feels truly menacing, right down to the power drill of "Thieves." [Philip Sherburne]
Various ArtistsJudgment Night
You can't hear Skrillex's collaborations with Korn, The Doors or Van Dyke Parks without thinking of Judgment Night, the 1993 soundtrack that brought together Sonic Youth with Cypress Hill, Biohazard with Onyx, Slayer with Ice-T (!) and other unholy rap-metal matrimonies. Helmet and House of Pain's "Just Another Victim," a fusion of skuzzy post-hardcore and buzz-bomb beats, has aged surprisingly well, and Living Colour bring the requisite dose of rock for Run-D.M.C. Mainly, it makes you miss the Bomb Squad's style of beats, which are everywhere on the album. [P.S.]
Aphex TwinCome to Daddy
If you could pick only one record to sum up Richard D. James' schizoid musical personality, it'd have to be 1997's Come to Daddy EP. Not only does it contain his apex of ugliness -- the grinding, gurgling title track, complete with po-faced death-metal vocals -- it also features "Flim," a delicate breakbeat lullaby that's the epitome of innocence. There are no duds, in fact; further highlights include the mournful closing song, the warped acid of "Funny Little Man" and the convoluted drums of "Bucephalus Bouncing Ball," a rhythmic tour de force that seems to defy gravity itself. [P.S.]
The ProdigyTheir Law: The Singles 1990 - 2005
Kings of rave bombast The Prodigy figure near the top of the list of Skrillex's professed faves, and no wonder: like electronic Sex Pistols, they introduced snarling, bird-flipping insouciance to club kids and offered rage as an alternative to mushy PLUR. Skrillex's music is actually a good deal more good-natured, but his virulent beats, stylistic hybrids, and in-the-red energy levels owe an evident debt to Prodigy tracks like "Firestarter" and "Smack My Bitch Up," included here along with 29 other singles, remixes and live recordings. [P.S.]
From First to LastDear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Body Count
Before he was Skrillex, Sonny Moore was the frontman for From First to Last, a melody-conscious band teetering on the border between pop punk and emo. Contrast is the order of the day, as the band shuttles between serrated riffs and clean, placid passages; Moore's close-harmonized vocals sketch an arc that soars far past the bounds of bathos, when they're not dissolving into Drano-drinking yowls. It doesn't necessarily sound like Skrillex, but you can hear Moore's fondness for emotional overload in every gut-wrenching measure. [P.S.]
SkreamSkream!
Dubstep's first artist album (as opposed to DJ mix) arguably appeared back in 2002 with Horsepower Productions' In Fine Style, but Skream's 2006 debut album was the first LP to represent the genre as a fully formed entity, with coiled, half-time beats, high-plains-drifting flutes and a writhing, malevolent low end. Far different from the aggressive shape it would take upon hitting the States, dubstep here is as meditative as it is muscular, though tunes like "Midnight Request Line" prove quiet can be just as lethal as loud. [P.S.]
KornUntitled
Korn enlist some big names for album No. 8, but that doesn't stop them from creating freaky tunes of Stephen King-like proportions. As producers Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder of NIN fame spatter Korn's dark palette with industrial flair, drummer duty is split between singer Jonathan Davis, Missing Persons' Terry Bozzio and Bad Religion's Brooks Wackerman. The result is a coalescence of explosive, metallic percussion that prevails alongside proggy, celestial guitars and Davis' gravel-chewing bawls. Listen to "Intro," "Kiss" and "Do What They Say" and you may start sleeping with the lights on. [S.B.]
Deadmau5For Lack of a Better Name
Deadmau5 paved the way for Skrillex, and not just by putting out the latter's debut EP. The Toronto programmer, performer and forum-jockey stoked North America's rave revival with punchy electro-house and plenty of onstage spectacle, and he wrapped it all up in dance music's most recognizable branding: that oversized mouse head. It took Skrillex to swap out Deadmau5's famously antisocial persona for a good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll underdog. In turn, Skrillex's aggro sound paved the way for Deadmau5's own dubstep-influenced experiments on his following album, 4x4=12. [P.S.]
BrokencydeI'm Not a Fan But the Kids Like It
Every punk band picks its battles, and Brokencyde's is the generational divide. In this case, they antagonize at all costs with all manner of fluo overload (trance stabs, 808 beats, screamo screaming, Auto-Tune) proven by biology and focus groups to make adults crazy. Roping in E-40 for a guest slot, Brokencyde are shameless about their gangsta cribbings; for all their crunk swagger, the roots in their gel-streaked hair run deeper than their appreciation of hip-hop. But the title is a sly jab at graybeard critics; the kids will have their say. [P.S.]
RuskoO.M.G.!
His production work for Britney Spears, T.I. and Rihanna helped boost Rusko's profile as one of dubstep's first mainstream crossover artists. But the 25-year-old Leeds producer's debut album doesn't forget where he came from: Opener "Woo Boost" is a gnarly wobbler in the tradition of his anthem "Cockney Thug," and there's plenty more where that came from. But forays into digital dancehall, robotic R&B and futurist electro-funk -- with a generous helping of Zapp-influenced vocals -- show that Rusko is too clever to stay shackled to a single style, even if it's one he helped create. [P.S.]