Skrillex-Recess (2014)

Skrillex-Recess (2014)

Leaving was a sign of Skrillex branching into something else, trying to put aside the preponderancy of brostep`s hard hitting rhythms and compressed interactions with melody, I must add that as much as experimental as Leaving could be, it was a big failure, in one side it wasn’t as immediate as his first recordings and in the other it hardly gave a defined direction to follow, exposing more weakness and indecision rather than a complete artistic change of direction.

Recess although better than Leaving doesn’t add anything new to the Skrillex saga, yes, again the dumb experiments are present, deceiving his early followers for its lack of focus, and immediacy, it’s a disperse recording, I guess with a nostalgic feeling for the great Zoo recording by The Bug, in a certain way Skrillex tries to find the dancehall roots in his music, with predecessors like dubstep, it seems like an obvious movement when in the middle of confusion, a step backwards in order to gain momentum for a big leap forward, unfortunately Skrillex is no Aphex Twin, Burial or The Bug, and it can get a little daring for moments, but losing its pop an commercial appear is never in the mind of this artist.

Skrillex could win a prize for trying, but in the real world trying isn’t enough, it’s no big achievement, and the fact that this is a recording that relies a lot in participation of other artist, the blame seems to be divided in purpose between the participants, opener All is Fair in Love and Brostep, opens with vocal sampling (big surprise!) and the quick arriving of those ultra-hard hitting beats, great and hardcore ragga singing, and powerful electrifying shortcuts by main man Skrillex, showing a weird marriage between the testosterone filled brother of dubstep and its antecessor dancehall, next song, title track Recess recaptures the spirit of early Skrillex records, lots of nonsense vocals, a little melody and the brutal attack of electronic percussive stabs, an unclassifiable cocktail of sounds, not a part of hip hop, techno, dubstep or dancehall, but a sure pleaser for his oldest fans.

Stranger finds Skrillex branching again, languid vocals and more melodic background gives place to a less “Skrillex” sound, exploring the worlds of jungle music and letting some “strange” ideas come out, I bet less people will party with this music, but it would be better received at dance clubs, there is more substance and less form, which kind of give us a little hope for the future for Skrillex, if not for the brostep genre.

I enjoyed Try out for its really amusing promise of getting closer to the experimental ambient music of people like Aphex Twin, although not getting too near, quickly getting back to character while in Coast Is Clear, Skrillex can presume of a really triumphant theme, guided by the weird expertise of Chance The Rapper, this time visiting similar territory with southern act Outkast and their hip hop raves.

Diplo also makes an appearance and gives Skrillex another big fresh of breath air, helping again the man to experiment without falling miserably,  it’s a really interesting piece, uncompromising and full of frenzied beats and chopped vocals, that before returning to hard hitting “ragga” in Ragga Bomb, evoking the spirit of London`s The Bug.

Skrillex sounds nervous in Recess, uncomfortable experimenting but dropping 2 or 3 great themes nevertheless, in the spirit of length it’s close to Leaving it could have been a great ep, but it turned out to be a really big mess and again a notorious failure in the long run.