One of the most
prolific dubstep artists to come out in the past five years or so, Skrillex,
has been experimenting in different fields of music. The term 'brostep' is
thrown around the internet more than a rugby ball, with fans arguing whether
Skrillex is brostep or not. However so, he still remains a commercial pioneer
when it comes to electronic bass lines going ape shit, which is something you
can't argue against (unless you've been living in the basement for the past few
years.) Luckily for you I can't be arsed to go on any pretentious bullshit rant
about both genres. His album Recess
came as a surprise to me, but it has been a little while since Bangarang was released. “Breakn’ A Sweat”
was a superb example of a wonderful collaboration between Sonny Moore and the remaining
members of The Doors - will this album come across anything like that?
The first song
comes with “All Is Fair in Love and Brostep”, which is one of the songs that feature
The Ragga Twins. It starts off with a spoken sample and therefore goes into auto
tuned singing with bass on the voices. When the bass line drops is seems less
mental as I hope, but it’s okay nonetheless, it works throughout the song. The
synth sounds are nice through the second verse, working with the drumbeat until
the next bass drop. Next up, Kill the
Noise teams up with Skrillex for the first time since KoRn's Path To Totality album with the song “Recess”.
The album title song arrives with Fatman Scoop providing some vocals. It's an
upbeat song which in my eyes would be brilliant live, the bass lines aren't
much, but the song mainly relies on a constant repetition and considering
dubstep is a form of house it is expected.
“Stranger” is a
toned down track with Killagraham and Sam Dew. It kicks up a minute in,
with the bass line high pitched, which if I am absolutely honest really annoyed
me. I like the singing on this track, it's nice and halfway through the tempo
changes which the sounds do sound a lot better when slowed down. Alvin Risk
rolls his way for a guest appearance on the track “Try It Out”, a nice and
lively one which kicks ass all the way throughout. It's catchy and a good head
nodder, and the return of the high pitched auto tune voices on this album makes
this song quite swell. The bass line is quite samey throughout, but it's a
perfect duration for a song like this. “Coast Is Clear” pops up with a very
retro feel to it, until it kicks in with bass line and light percussion. The
lyrics are pretty vulgar, not that it matters to me. It's an alright rap, the
song is pretty weak compared to the rest of the songs so far into Recess. The light distorted bass sound
is nice, but it kind of ruins the calm mood and harmonies near the end of the
song. Diplo pops in with more auto tune with the choir sounding slightly spazzy
as if it's random key mashing on a MIDI controller. When it drops the auto
tuned voice is replaced instead of a bass line that I think was pretty cool. It's
a slightly catchy song with an awesome techno vibe coming off it, it's one of
the shortest songs on the album.
“Ragga Bomb”
comes next this, if the title didn't tell you, is the other song featuring The
Ragga Twins. The voice is nice distorted which seems to replace the bass line
in this, the song flows pretty nicely throughout and then the bass drop strikes
once again with nice rapping until the end. The intro to Doompy Poomp sounds
slightly shit and the music kicks in, a strange mix of sounds in my opinion. It's
however somewhat groovy, with some whiny little high pitched twat through the
song. Halfway it changes through some strange but soothing elevator music feel
to it. “Fuck That” is next, and when the bass drops it has a pretty fucking
groovy to it. It's another
song a dubstep artist has done that is experimenting with trap music.
For those who
don't know what trap is, it's dubstep with a build-up, but without a bass line
that sounds like Optimus Prime having a sloppy fart sounding shit after a
vindaloo autobot curry. There isn't much to this song other than a steady and
chilled beat and bass line which isn't over the top or messed around with on
MIDI pots or sliders. We are approaching the last few songs and they are both
just over 10 minutes in length when added together. “Ease My Mind” is the first
one to come from this, a nicely soft tune which has such a West Asia feel to it
when it comes to the bass line.
This is one of
the best songs on here, when it comes to music and vocals both work wonders on
this. It remains a nice travel through some decent electronic music for a
lovely casual listen. And last but not least it's “Fire Away” to finish of this
album. This is a quiet and beautifully ambient track, even with the bass
creeping around the background. It's a quiet way to go out of an album, but
it's a great mix. This album has mixed around different genres when it comes to
electronic music - with dubstep, hardcore techno and ambience being examples of
the versatility of genres in this album. Though it's not the strongest album
Skrillex has produced, it still has a few kicks and punches which give you
glimpses of what he has appeared to be since 2010. There sadly isn't as much
energy in this album as there could've been, the with the songs with different
moods it seems a little out of place with each other, there are still some
highlights. “Recess” would be fantastic to see live as it's such a good upbeat
song, and "Fuck That" is a good example of trap. There are some highlights on
this, with a main focus on brostep, but it's decent enough, however it will
alienate some of his fans for the songs he has previously produced involved
crazy bass lines and fast tempo songs. It's nice to see
experimentation, Skrillex focuses on more of a groove rather than going mental,
however if you like his stuff before Recess
and don't want him to change from his old ways then you won’t like this as much.
~Matthew Clewley
7.2
