Yes, I Mean Sonny: 10 Of My Favorite Skrillex Tracks
It's time to give Skrillex his due for making me the raver I am today.
Finishing my “two newsletters a month” goal just under the wire in March.
Hey everyone how goes? Hope all is well.
I’m coming out of a bit of a funk, which is nice. The weather has been rather demonstrative of my mental health these days with the sun finally shining for extended periods in Los Angeles.
And one artist who can always bring about some internal sunshine under compressed and processed wubs and wobbles is Skrillex.
Truth be told, this newsletter came from a piece I started for another publication that was scrapped midway through.
But honestly, Skrillex has played such a prominent role in my experience in electronic music (not to mention a prominent role in the evolution of electronic music globally) that I had to share my thoughts in the wake of his triumphant return.
In short (just like Skrillex who is actually shorter than I am), electronic music would not be what it is today without him.
Skrillex is not a dubstep producer.
It is true, that Skrillex (...oh you mean Sonny?) invented a new dubstep sound with his remix of Benny Benassi’s “Cinema” and original productions like “First of the Year (Equinox),”
But in truth, he’s always been producing more than dubstep. Scary Monster and Nice Sprites, the breakout EP that launched his career into universes unknown has just as much house music as it did dubstep.
Tracks like “Rock ‘n’ Roll (Will Take You to the Mountain),” “Kill EVERYBODY,” and “All I Ask of You (feat. Pennybirdrabbit),” which are all from Scary Monster and Nice Sprites, are all based on four-on-the-floor-kicks.
And for those who would discount music with Skrillex-esque wailing synths over a four-on-the-floor kick as “house music,” “All I Ask of You” is actually quite mellow and would fit perfectly in a progressive house set.
Sonny has been making house music since day one. He’s been making dubstep since day one, too. He’s always been making everything.
Overall he’s just a talented producer with his own unique sound, just like his newfound partners in crime, Four Tet and Fred Again..
Four Tet has been running hot on dance music for quite a few years now, but much of his early catalog like his 2003 album, Rounds, was barely even electronic.
Long before Fred Again.. was pegged for dance music, he was writing charting records with pop artists like Clean Bandit, Rita Ora, Ed Sheeran, and George Ezra, with Ezra’s cowrite, “Shotgun,” reaching number 1 in the UK singles chart.
If Sonny was just a dubstep producer, there’s no way he could’ve had the chemistry he did with Four Tet and Fred Again.. to where they’re selling out a DJ set at Madison Square Garden in two minutes.
Sure there is star power attached, but that wouldn’t matter if all those impromptu sets in London and NYC sucked due to an inability to gel behind the decks.
Throughout his career, Sonny has actually proven he can gel with basically anyone. That’s where the whole “oh you mean Sonny?” joke I referenced earlier comes from. Pretty much everyone in music (that includes me because he asked me for a lighter once right?) knows him in some capacity.
Whether it be a one-off collaboration like the dozens he’s had with artists like The Game, Noisia, Poo Bear, and Rick Ross, or the numerous times he’s started an entirely new project.
Early on in Sonny’s career when his hit songs started giving him the reputation as the “dubstep guy,” he immediately proved to everyone he was more when he partnered with Boys Noize for Dog Blood and invented a new genre along the way called terror-break-acid-tech-noize.
OK yes, the genre name is superfluous, but the music itself really does defy definition.
After that, Sonny went back to Skrillex for his debut album, Recess, which was a forum in electronic production and artistic versatility. All the styles that are on his new album Quest For Fire are on Recess, too.
I honestly hadn’t really listened to Recess for years until I started writing this piece. It’s kind of insane how ahead of the curve he was in 2014.
Then the next thing that took Sonny on tours of the world was his collaboration with Diplo: Jack Ü. Another hard-to-define project, and one that broke a ton of boundaries for electronic music in general.
It got Sonny and Diplo a Grammy, and it brought Justin Bieber into the dance world via their collaboration “Where Are Ü Now” which led to a guest appearance at Jack Ü’s headlining set at HARD Summer 2015.
Say what you want about Justin Bieber, but there is no way he would have gotten anywhere near HARD Summer without connecting with someone as open-minded and talented as Sonny (and they continue to work together today).
For the following years that’s really all Sonny did. He was the talented open-minded producer who could work with anyone. He wasn’t touring. He was only releasing sparse singles while adding to his massive list of collaborators including rappers, pop artists, and electronic legends.
Yet another sign of Sonny’s genius was capitalizing on this long break and morphing it into one of the most notable album rollouts in recent history.
Question: how could you make fans more excited for a new album, but have that excitement directed towards something that wasn’t a new album?
Answer: start an impromptu super group with two producers completely outside your ostensible sphere of influence and play a series of day-of sets in two of the biggest cities in the world.
…Then drop two albums. (Quest For Fire and Don’t Get Too Close, respectively).
Goddamn. It was brilliant. The dance music history books will have a chapter dedicated to this rollout, and it was especially crazy for me because as I was collecting myself from the two surprise drops, I realized I had been listening to Skrillex (yes, I mean Sonny) for over ten years.
I got into raving right when he was blowing up on those dubstep (and house) tracks. I always saw him live if he played a festival I was at (except that time he overlapped with Muse at Coachella 2014).
At this point, his release catalog is like a living timeline of my evolution as a raver (which to be super sappy about it, coincides with my evolution as a human being) marked mostly by specific live memories.
Here are ten songs across that catalog and across the coinciding evolution.
1. Fuck That
This is one I remember bumping as soon as it came out. It was right around the time I was getting into house music, and it was the perfect segue to more house-focused artists like Gorgon City. And I bring that up specifically because a few weeks later we all went to HARD Summer 2014 and Gorgon City played “Fuck That” and it just went so off.
2. Right On Time
Did anyone who saw Diplo at HARD Day of the Dead 2012 find the trap remix/edit of this? Because it still (in a good way) haunts my dreams. I guess I really just say “haunt” because I heard it at a Halloween rave. But I’ve heard the original dozens of times on my own since. That half-time break is still so pinnacle.
3. Next Order
Honestly when I first Dog Blood’s music all I could think is “what the fuck is this?” But I still really really really wanted to see them live at Coachella 2013. It was my first Coachella and this was my first set in the Sahara tent (when it was still rave central). I still didn’t understand it, but I could definitely rage to it.
4. Mind
Jack Ü was a moment in time for dance music. I remember, even before Diplo and Sonny started making music together, many people, myself included, pegged them as the number one collaboration they wanted to see.
And then it happened.
Neither of them had a particular genre attached to them around the genesis of the project, and then when I saw the first Jack Ü set ever at Mad Decent San Diego in 2013, they furthered that impression by playing probably the most open format set I’ve ever seen at an electronic forward event.
Part of that open format set were some rather chill tracks akin to “Mind,” which ended up being a wind-down track for me. Still is.
5. Bun Up The Dance
If Skrillex is still the dubstep guy, then Dillon Francis is still the moombahton guy, and I’m stoked that they made some moombahton when they got in the studio together.
6. Make It Bun Dem
You may not have been aware that dubstep came from reggae. I know I wasn’t when I first heard it. But it’s OK. Sonny knew. And he brought in a reggae legend named Damian Marley to educate everyone on the history.
7. Horizon
In 2022, the world received the tragic news that Noisia was no more. They had one more album left, one more tour as a trio, and then they were done (though at this point I feel like break-up announcements like this are always marketing ploys).
And who is one of the few features that made it on the album, entitled Closer? Sonny. That’s who. One of the most legendary D&B outfits ever invited him to make his mark on their (apparently) final effort. Is there a more respectable stamp of approval?
8. Fuji Opener
Another reason Sonny is such a legend is that he introduced the world to some of the most celebrated electronic artists of our time. There would be no Porter Robinson without Sonny. There would be no Zedd without Sonny. There would be no Alvin Risk without Sonny. No, Alvin Risk hasn’t made any waves even close to as big as the previous two, but he did make this fire track with Sonny.
9. Reptile’s Theme
I don’t play Mortal Kombat, but goddamn this track makes me want to fight. Overall I think this is the best of early Skrillex. The way he hops around between different sounds and messes with samples…it never gets old. As the song says: “Flawless Victory.”
10. Cinema - Skrillex Remix
To close out this list it’s only fair that the last track is attached to my favorite set I’ve ever seen of Sonny’s: his Do LaB guest appearance at Coachella in 2017.
See, back in my day (I’m 30 so I’m old enough to say that now), Do LaB didn’t post special guests in advance. They designated unnamed time slots and you could only find out by word of mouth or by risking it all and checking out the stage for yourself.
On Saturday night of weekend 2 in 2017, I happened to hear Sonny was playing by word of mouth….
…and I didn’t believe it.
So I immediately texted a friend of mine who runs PR for Do LaB.
“Yo do you know who the special guest is tonight at Do LaB?”
His reply:
“I honestly can’t tell you bro. Sorry.”
As far as I was concerned that was the confirmation. Because the only reason he wouldn’t be able to tell me is if it was someone big. Really big.
You best believe it was Sonny. You best believe he played the best set I’ve ever seen from him. Most of all, you best believe he closed with his “Cinema” remix, which got phased out of his sets three years prior.
Shoutouts
Going to introduce a new section here just to shoutout my friends who are doing cool things.
foryu - “crashing down”
My amazing friend Brooke, who produces music under the name foryu, just put out a new single! This is coming ahead of her debut album.
Kat Bein is back at Ultra
My wonderful friend and fellow journalist, Kat Bein just wrote an awesome review of Ultra Music Festival. I will forever be dumbfounded by Kat’s ability to piece together words.
Ultra Music Festival 2023: What Does ‘Underground’ Even Mean Anymore?
Myself writing for a good cause
If I don’t hype up my own accomplishments who else will? I just wrote a feature I’m very proud of about what it means to be a musician in Iran.
For the last 40 years, that country has been fighting a revolution on all fronts, and this inherent struggle has inspired some seriously unbelievable musicians.
Now in the face of the current uprising, there is hope that, for the first time in 40 years, those musicians will have the chance to share their music with the world without inhibition. Women. Life. Freedom.
The Heart and Resilience of Iran’s Dance Music Community
Writer’s Recs
Gretel Hänlyn - The Head of the Love Club
I can’t remember the last time I was more excited about a new artist than I am for Gretel Hänlyn (pronounced Hen-Line), and the fact that I can’t think of more words to write about her proves that. I mean, I can think of more words, but I don’t think they’re necessary.
Just listen to her new EP (and then her previous one, Slugeye). She just rocks the fuck out.
Portishead - Dummy
The name of this album is Dummy and that’s how I feel for taking so long to hear it. After Annie (fans of St. Vincent only call her Annie) announced she was doing a cover of “Glory Box” on Fallon, I, of course immediately searched the original.
Let’s just say I pre-melted.
Beth Gibbons reached into my soul with her sorrowful cries, grabbed ahold, and transferred a sense of power to me, thus the melting. Then just as I was regaining my solid frame, I watched Annie sing it and I melted again (plus the fact that she covered that particular song and wore all black during the gig affirmed some serious premonitions about what to expect from her next album).
Since then Dummy has been on repeat, and trust every song is on the same level as “Glory Box”
Giorgia Angiuli - Quantam Love
Another very recent discovery of mine. I saw Giorgia’s setup when she played Beyond Wonderland last weekend, and it was stacked with so many different types of machines. She played keys, sang vocals, all while doing all the shit with knobs and cables that I don’t understand even slightly.
To me, after growing up playing instruments and learning music traditionally, then learning how to DJ like everyone else in LA, those types of performances, which are as intricate and intuitive as live instrumentation but almost fully electronic, intrigue the hell out of me.
I can hear that level of care and attention in her recordings as well.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - V
I’ve been a fan of Ruban’s for quite a while now. Really since I first heard his 2013 masterpiece, II. No, not all the albums follow the roman-numeral naming system, but I’m glad this newest one did because it is my favorite to come since II.
Throughout the length of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Ruban has also been producing these epic, experimental/ambient/jazz/whatever-the-fuck jams under weird alphanumerical names like “SB-01”. Some of them are like 17 minutes long and they’re all so exquisite. With his latest album, I feel like he brought that energy into the aloof psychedelia of his previous LPs.
The Black Belles - The Black Belles
The Black Belles’ lead singer is Olivia Jean who is a Third Man Records mainstay and a talented solo artist in her own right. I didn’t know she had a separate band until very recently, the genre of which is “garage goth.”