Skrillex Book Club: Volume 4 - Bangarang (2011)

[hprara]

Image by bepmp3

Time for the the fourth instalment in the "Skrillex Book Club".
ICYMI, we're taking a listening journey through the discography of the great Sonny Moore and sharing some of our thoughts along the way.
Last week, we looked at More Monsters and Sprites.

This week, the EP many of us have been waiting for...

Bangarang (2011)



Hell yeah dude. Fuck yeah dude. I almost always forget how good this one is until I revisit it. Once again, a whole heap of childhood nostalgia associated with this EP. My earliest memory with it was trying desperately to find clean versions of 'Kyoto' and 'Bangarang' as a kid because I was paranoid that my parents would get mad at me for listening to music with swears. I ended up trimming the end off of the latter myself and very poorly editing the cover art in MS Paint to get rid of the parental advisory sticker so no-one would be any the wiser.

So many classics on here. 'Right In' sets the energy from the get go. Punchy in all the right ways. Love the vocal chops. The title track is a staple of course. I like how you can tell Sirah's vocals were just recorded on a laptop, especially in the outro. Crazy ass video as has become par for the course by now. 'Breakn' a Sweat' is crazy if not for any other reason than getting The Doors on it. And it rips aside from that too! The "Making Of" video for that track is also a treat. I remember trying to make my own "music video" for this one with my friend Dante in like 5th grade. Needless to say, it didn't pan out. The riff on 'The Devil's Den' also rips. Listening to it this morning, I could almost imagine a more typical Myspace-era version of this track with that same riff. I have a vague recollection of listening to this song on a childhood car ride and feeling something that I can only describe as Christian Guilt for enjoying a song with the line "we all live in the devil's den" so much.

The only real weak track on here is 'Right On Time'. It's not awful, it could maybe work as like a DJ tool of some sort. But it's just kinda nothing burger overall. Cool sounds but feels like its constantly building up to something that never happens. But that doesn't matter because then we get 'Kyoto' and 'Summit' baybeeee. Ouuaaagghhhhh Summit is so goddamnn good.. Like a spiritual successor to With You Friends. A wonderful closer.

You really do start to see him come into his own here and refine his style even further. This is also where I think he hit the mainstream the hardest. Skrillex was now becoming somewhat of a pop culture figure. For better or worse, he was now associated with this "new" electronic sound that was supposedly taking the world by storm. This is when and where your weird uncle started asking you if you've "ever heard about this dup step thing". And you'd have to play a bit stupid to get you to leave him alone before his rant fully devolved into a self-felating "music was so much better when I was your age"-style rant. This is the sound that Top 40 producers had to struggle make heads or tails of and wound up chasing for the next 5 years or so (to varying degrees of success). This was the blueprint.


Now it's your turn!
What are your thoughts on this EP? Do you love it/hate it? Have you even heard it? (if not, go listen, the image is a link to it's RYM page)
Speak your mind!

[gauze_]

yeahhh buddy its time for The One. i havent listened to this in such a long time so most of these tracks are almost a new experience or fully a new one because i just skipped tons of tracks as a kid (like usual for these releases). despite that this is probably the ep that i have the most memories of, both from my childhood and more recent.

sidenote i wanted to see if this ep was still on beatport because i forgot that website existed and the old big beat redirect short link (bgbe.at/S_BangarangBeatport in this case) is now in possession of some sort of russian gambling site with tons of ai generated promo imagery LMFAOOO

anyways, music. right in is cool and good but i feel like only really the drops captivate me the rest of the track kind of just feels alright personally but bangarang ohhh yesss bro. one of the last times i listened to this was in either 2023 or 2024 when me and my girlfriend were doordashing at like 1am and had to go on a highway so blasted this song full volume windows down going at a speed i probably shouldnt state on the internet. this songs holds memories for that but is also just really fucking good. there is a reason this is also one of his most popular songs. but i have to say i kind of prefer what this song couldve been? the chops in the demo just hit so much harder than the drops in the final song imo. i like the intro on this demo more too tbh. also if were talking about crazy skrillex music videos, the bangarang one is just absolutely absurd??? i remember watching that music video and getting scared of that happening to me somehow LMFAO. moving on from that, breakn a sweat is such a good track, one of my favorites when i was younger, but i would skip like a minute and a half in because i was too impatient with the buildup LOL. i have to say i definitely dont like it as much as i did when i was younger but i have to give it the praise it deserves because it definitely deserves praise. for sure one of the better tracks on this ep. i think i also remember it being faster than it actually is??? not sure where that sort of memory alteration would have come from but this feels slower than i remember hearing like 10 years ago. and ohhghh the devils den yes. one of the noisier tracks from skrillex and therefore one of my favorites then and now. i dont really have much to say about it actually i just love loud tones and this track does that for me while still having the rest of it like the buildups keep me engaged. if any track (other than bangarang) is an attention grabber its this one. right on time feels soo out of place on this tracklist LOL. i feel like this would have a chance to have felt better and have better reception as a miscellaneous single but on this ep it feels like it shouldnt be there. it also isnt that good to begin with, but when youre comparing it to other tracks on this ep its an easy pick for worst. kyoto ended up being a track i somehow managed to miss this whole time and i dont know how. super super good track i dont really know what to say its just really fucking good. shame on like 8 year old me for missing out on this one. GODDDD SUMMIT. SUMMIT IS THE ONE. THIS ONE was my favorite as a kid and IT HOLDS. IT ABSOLUTELY HOLDS. this one i also had memories of feeling like it was faster but it doesnt matter too much this track HOLDS. summit by skrillex and ellie goulding i owe you everything. i remember checking out ellie gouldings other music after hearing this song i liked it that much but i dont think i ever liked any of her other music as much.

over all this ep rips and im so happy to have finally gotten to talk about it

best track: summit
worst track: right on time

[hprara]

the old big beat redirect short link (bgbe.at/S_BangarangBeatport in this case) is now in possession of some sort of russian gambling site with tons of ai generated promo imagery LMFAOOO

sounds like half the traffic on these forums

[RAW_]

This is the best Skrillex EP. I don't even have to put "so far" at the end of that because I know without a shadow of a doubt that this is one of his finest works ever. I first became aware of this EP when I heard the title track come up on his Pandora radio. Remember Pandora? Me neither. Anyways after hearing that I found the rest of the EP on his YouTube page. Even then, after the first listen, I knew that this was a perfect, no-skip masterpiece (with one exception).

The story goes that Skrillex was gearing up to release his debut album Voltage in 2012, but sadly, his laptop got stolen, along with several songs and demos from the upcoming record. It is said that a few tracks from the Voltage sessions were saved and eventually turned up on the Bangarang EP, which I fully believe, because a lot of the tracks on here are some of his finest work yet.

We jump right in with, appropriately, "Right In". This is a great opening track with a great energy to it. The title track still kicks total ass after nearly 15 years. Really love the guitar on this one. Hard as hell drops too. Sirah's eating fun dip and not giving a fuck. Great weird music video as usual. "Breakn' a Sweat" is a bonkers collab with The Doors. I honestly don't know how most Doors fans feel about this track, but I think it rips. Going back to the making of video, it really looks like everyone had fun making this, so that outta count for something. Definitely feels like more passion went into this than anything Skrillex did with Korn. What a disaster that was lmao. This, however, is amazing. To quote the Doors, "That's good!" Another weird video that I can only describe as "Death Stranding 3 Official Trailer". The next track, "The Devil's Den", is another collab, this time with another electronic artist I was getting into at the time Wolfgang Gartner, best known for his song "Forever" with will.i.am (coincidentally with a weird ass video starring a will.i.am sperm). Gartner's complextro house and Skrillex's wubs and growls work great together. "Right on Time" is the only dud on the EP. It truly does just feel like a song that keeps building up only to never release the tension in a satisfying way. Luckily, "Kyoto" comes in to save the day and deliver the biggest headbanger on here. Sirah isn't lying, that bass really do be makin a bitch cum. The EP officially ends with "Summit", quite possibly Skrillex's most beautiful song. I always get a little emotional hearing Ellie Goulding sing the chorus. Did you know the two dated for a hot sec? Pretty crazy. Also on streaming, there's a bonus track thats an orchestral medley of Skrillex's biggest hits up to this point. It's alright.

To close things out, does anyone remember this one game called Skrillex Quest? It was a free browser game that came out in 2012 to promote the Bangarang EP. It was very much a zelda clone with 2 or 3 Skrillex songs in the soundtrack. Pretty sure Sonny himself makes a cameo at the end too. Got taken down but I assume theres an archive of it somewhere on the internet. Would definitely reccommend.

[bepmp3]

salsa on my balls boys weed brownie. despite discovering skrillex and getting into him right around the time of this EP i'd actually say i've never gotten around to listening to this in full as a wholistic work. i was still mainly consuming his work through his youtube and the track uploads and stuff. because of that i've never really tapped into the second half of the ep and only knew the Big songs that everyone else knew. that being said, now that i've given it a full listen during a train ride i totally understand why people hype this one up as his best (tho i still very much prefer NMIS in a lot of ways). lots of iconic moments and hype moments and aura (yo skrill drop it hard!!!) tho it does get a little inconsistent down the middle which i'll get to.

i don't really have much to say about its intro Right In other than it's iconic, i always knew it was an intro to bangarang as an EP but haven't heard it in context until now. IT'S ANOTHER ONE!! the little part with the vocal chop and the synth riff at around 0:55 is so fucking cool oh my god it just radiates coolness energy. Bangarang is the big one... this song was my introduction to skrillex, i first heard this song on the radio when i was like 10 and i didn't know what the hell i was listening to but it blew my fucking mind apart. dare i say this was an early introduction to electronic music for me? it for sure showed me that electronic music can be cool as hell. a notable facet of this ep is that i think Skrillex was trying to experiment with the sonic aesthetics of guitar amps/pedals around this time. throughout my listen i picked up on a lot of noises/samples that sound like they were amped through guitar distortion and shit. Breakn' a Sweat is remarkable and also funny as hell just for the sole fact that it's a collab between skrillex and The fucking Doors but like let a brostep girl enjoy some classic dad rock for once. you can tell they were having so much fun in the studio just from the vocal samples that are weaved in and out of the track (that's good!!). the added sample (tribute?) of jim morrison basically prophesying the trajectory of music becoming electronic is such an incredible touch and it really ties together this otherwise strange collab. shoutout to the making of video where the doors guys are hella dismissive at first when sonny plays them a demo lmao.

the couplet of The Devil's Den and Right on Time is where the EP sort of hits its weak spot imo because both of these tracks don't really fit right in their own separate ways. Firstly, The Devil's Den sounds notably closer to MNIS and his earlier material for some reason? a lot more older sounding dubstep growls and synths and overall rougher sounding than the other tracks, which skrillex's music was getting much more refined and cleaner and intricate at this point. maybe he had this track for longer than the other tracks in the EP and was just holding on to it? i don't really know the history of wolfgang gartner (the featured artist) enough to know i guess. Right on Time is even more confusing and out of nowhere because the drop is just straight up replaced with a glitch hop breakdown?? really really unexpected coming off of a skrillex ep let alone being one of the main tracks and not a remix. also yes this song is really just 4 minute long build up.

am i idiot for not knowing the "YO SKRILL DROP IT HARD" song was on this EP? because yea i didn't and i didn't know the name (Kyoto) earlier. i'm a fake sonny moore fan. anyways the final two (Kyoto and Summit) is where we get back into the meat of the EP and the overall direction of it. sirah has some crazy bars lol.

Chillin' in Kyoto Grand with my man Skrill
Chain smokin' nicotine, say fuck a fast deal
We got that white girl, so we make those Skrill checks
Fuck a white girl, talk ill, neck karate chop her grill
Bitch, I kill, born from the center of a storm
All the boys flappin' gums about how they're hard
Bitch, I'm harder, martyr to the swag on the corner
Beat your girl up with the drums as the bass makes that bitch cum

i'm looking at genius now and apparently "skrill" is slang for cocaine. awesome. now i get to finally talk about Summit and have you guys aim 10000 guns and weapons at me. i knew of this song as a kid but did not care for at all because it's 6 minutes and i was scrubbing through it asking "where's the drop??". sorta like the infamous facebook screenshot. listening to it now, it's pretty good! the hook has been extremely catchy to me. IF YOU CAN HEAR ME NOW WHY DON'T YOU RECAAAAAAALLLL. i wish sonny displayed his emo vocals more around this time and didn't try to hide them... i can only imagine a Summit fan's reaction when FUS dropped hearing those vocals in full clarity on THINGS I PROMISED. my only complaint about this song, and this is where yall can get mad at me, is that it really didn't need to be 6 minutes. imo it doesn't deserve it in the way that both With You Friends versions deserve it.

this is getting too long. finally i wanna talk about the orchestral suite because no one really talked about it. for those who weren't big monstercat heads back then varien is an OG monstercat artist who was known for blending dubstep with orchestral elements. this whole medley is fun. when i heard the melody to With You Friends i got teary eyed and clapped! and hooted and hollered and said Thank You Skrillex My Life Is Yours. also varien managed to translate a skrillex drop very well to an orchestra setting for some reason. crazy how there's not one but two officially sanctioned Scary Monsters orchestra covers, the other being part of the Spring Breakers soundtrack which i honestly prefer more.

honestly idk how to finish this. good ep. salsa on my balls

[bepmp3]

someone give me 600 dollars https://www.discogs.com/release/4083334 ... yl-Box-Set

[hprara]

salsa on my balls boys weed brownie.

so true. god bless dubstep lyrics.

IF YOU CAN HEAR ME NOW WHY DON'T YOU RECAAAAAAALLLL. i wish sonny displayed his emo vocals more around this time and didn't try to hide them... i can only imagine a Summit fan's reaction when FUS dropped hearing those vocals in full clarity on THINGS I PROMISED.

yesssss. i say this all the time. iirc he stopped because smoking fucked up his voice a bit or something and he didn't wanna make it worse. but i could also just be perpetuating internet hearsay. there's a chance these vocals are from earlier than 2011 though (if this demo and sonny's history of repurposing old samples and acapellas is anything to go by).

my only complaint about this song, and this is where yall can get mad at me, is that it really didn't need to be 6 minutes. imo it doesn't deserve it in the way that both With You Friends versions deserve it.

there's actually a demo version that's like half the length. also has a much more prominent bass sound.