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Time for the the ninth 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 Jack Ü.

This week, we find ourselves in a purgatory of sorts...

"The Great Skrillex Drought (2016-2021)"


i went through like 2 pages of results trying to find an image to pair with this post and i saw so many outdated memes about skrillex sounding like bees that i realized i lowkey forgot that like hating dubstep was the hot thing for a while

So we're all on the same page here, I made a playlist of the tracks we've decided to listen to this week.

Yeah, this is a weird week. After Jack Ü, Skrillex' output became a lot more sparse. He didn't disappear completely but kinda faded off into the background. As a result of this, I just didn't really keep up for the nearly 8 year gap between Jack Ü and his next full length project. There were a couple tracks here and there on this playlist I remember hearing ('Purple Lamborghini' being pretty unavoidable upon release), but this period was a real blind spot for me.

Let's talk these first few singles between 2016 and 2019. The aforementioned 'Purple Lamborghini', barring the film it ties into, is pretty decent all things considered. It has aura and hype moments. Something that the next 3 tracks all lack. I really don't care for these. They're either kinda boring or kinda annoying or both. Like even Sonny's vocal chopping abilities don't save 'Would You Ever' from being one of the most generic Top 40 sounding Skrillex tracks I've ever heard (not counting DGTC but we'll get there). Not much to say about them other than that.

Luckily, things get better with "Show Tracks". These two tracks kinda rule. They don't see the heights of past heavy hitters but the production is on point here. Of course, the Ableton project file music videos are iconic. Remember kids, don't be afraid to clip your master. As long as it sounds good. I think I prefer 'Fuji Opener' out of these two. I realized I hadn't heard anything but the drop of 'Mumbai Power' in that one video of Peter "Family Guy" Griffin dancing to it. 'Midnight Hour' and it's remixes completely slipped past me when they came out. I did not know they existed. I don't think much would've changed if I did know. The original track is fine. Unoffensive. Would go over fine in a DJ mix. The remixes are also fine bordering on lame. I think the 'Mall Grab Remix' is probably my favourite. My main takeaway from this selection is that even Skrillex can't save Tech House from being Tech House.

Finally, two loosies. 'Kliptown Empyrean' at this point was the first Skrillex track since 2014 to not be a collab or remix of some sort. The gap is beginning to close. You can hear bits of what would end up being the pair of closing tracks to 2023's "Quest For Fire". This one is also fine. Not too far off from Skrillex' previous bouts with Future Garage. Lastly, another track that we'd see revisited on QFF, 'Too Bizarre'. It's cool but I vastly prefer the 'Juked' version off the album. I feel like this one doesn't really go anywhere. Though it's neat seeing this era's Skrillex pay something guitar-based a visit now so far removed from his days in From First To Last. All in all, I don't think I was missing much when these tracks slipped past me.



Now it's your turn!
What are your thoughts on these tracks? Do you love 'em/hate 'em? Have you even heard 'em? (if not, go listen)
Speak your mind!

Gonna just give some quick thoughts on these tracks since I don't have much to say about most of these:

Purple Lamborghini - Lowkey goes hard. Don't think its that controversial to say that this song is probably the best thing to come out of the suicide squad movie. Shoutout to the music video which doesn't include a single purple lamborghini anywhere. anal mercy an-an-an-anal mercy

Waiting - Cool song I suppose.

Chicken Soup - The most Skrllexy and best house song in this selection.

Would You Ever - Pretty decent. Not the biggest fan of the vocal chops in the drop but its still tolerable. Fun Fact: Poo Bear is one of Justin Bieber's main songwriters.

Fuji Opener - Tied with Chicken Soup for best song of the drought.

Mumbai Power - Basically just the song Skrillex made for Kingdom Hearts 3 but better.

Midnight Hour - The most nothingburger tech house song i've ever heard. I swear a good 60% of this song are just drums. Kinda had high hopes going into the remixes because I thought there's so much one could do to improve this, but alas, they're all either boring or not good. I swear the Four Tet remix is just the same song with like 3 changes.

Kliptown Empyrean - Fine dubstep track, even if its basically sound like a demo for Still Here

Too Bizaare - Juked version better.

RAW_ wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2026 2:34 pm Waiting - Cool song I suppose.

Chicken Soup - The most Skrllexy and best house song in this selection.

Surprisingly, I think these two are my least favourite. Or at least Chicken Soup. I just find the vocals annoying and the rest of the track doesn't do enough to make up for it.

as many of you know i said i was gonna hang my hat up but imma do a quick one because fuck it

Purple Lamborghini - Skrillex with ye Joskler. famous yoink is famous yoink. idk why the horns are so choppy in the beginning, like i legit thought my audio or video feed was buggin out but i assume it's skrillex doing an fl studio gross beat type trick which is really weird to think about him doing. also i find it really funny that he's using the "OH MY GOD" and "my name is skrillex" as producer tags essentially.

Waiting - yeah i got nothing to say about the song it's really really nothing but the music video is awesome because it has luxury elite visuals

Chicken Soup - he really be yoinking it around this time. bass melody sounds familiar but i can't put my finger on it. 2:42 snare is cool

Would You Ever - idgaf

Fuji Opener - the presentation of the Show Tracks EP comes back to my mind every now and then from the ableton file visualizers to the raw 3D software screenshot cover. interesting artistic decision for sonny to record these videos while his mac is at 1%. awesome brostep skrillex is back here. FUS foreshadowing with the WATCH WATCH ME POP IT LIKE A.


insightful comment

Mumbai Power - this project file is quite a damn scroll. i very much know this one from wherelsever. one of the better songs from the drought.

Midnight Hour - i like to get my bass dropped while i'm skrilling high. 909 hat sexual, ty's vocal melody in the intro also sounds very familiar. i think drake sang that same way once idk. my ass ain't listening to the remixes

Kliptown Empyrean - stickllex in sandllex. feels like an early version of what would evolve into his sound on QFF. chill skrill vibes.

Too Bizarre - juked version on QFF mogs tenfold but siiickbrain's scream part is fun.

bepmp3 wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2026 4:20 pm Purple Lamborghini - Skrillex with ye Joskler. famous yoink is famous yoink. idk why the horns are so choppy in the beginning, like i legit thought my audio or video feed was buggin out but i assume it's skrillex doing an fl studio gross beat type trick which is really weird to think about him doing. also i find it really funny that he's using the "OH MY GOD" and "my name is skrillex" as producer tags essentially.

i was thinking the same thing!! and the tags are so tacky omg i can't decide whether i hate them or love them. it feels like someone somewhere behind the scenes on the side of Suicide Squad thought that people wouldn't know who this Skrillex guy is unless he said so.

bepmp3 wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2026 4:20 pm siiickbrain's scream part is fun.

agreed, def the standout from this versoin

this skrillex drought week im mentally damaging myself with the opposite ! im also tackling the jack u remixes and the would you ever remixes because if i dont get to them i probably never will. maybe that would be a good thing but were going to find out by me listening to them.

starting with the remixes for take u there, unsurprisingly most of these were straight nothingburger. if you thought jack u sounded 2015 these remixes for the most part sound more 2015 than the original. for "highlights" i guess we have the tjr remix thats accidentally funny because the first drop is like a watered down version of the original and then the second drop it turns into a club cut where none of the involved elements work together at all its strange. the netsky one is just dnb and ive previously stated dnb is jingle keys to me ill sit my ass down and listen even if its mid because its like at least listenable. and i think the tujamo remix is the only one to try and do something interesting with the original drop as opposed to just making up a new one. its fine enough. to be honest i feel so nothing about these i cant tell if im mad that theyre nothing or if i just cant muster any feelings about them because theyre literally nothing. great start for this.

with the remixes of where are u now, i was like mildly excited because this was one of the best tracks on the actual album, and theres a marshmello remix. hot take marshmello isnt actually the worst hes just kind of annoying but his earlier tracks were like. fine. so i was hoping that would be like a light in the darkness. ehh not really. kind of just as mid as the others. the drops were kind of interesting though because he used the pitched up vocal thing as an extra instrument by like pitch shifting it and chopping it a little. apparently the kaskade remix made it on a now thats what i call music spinoff called now thats what i call a workout (2016 edition specifically) and im not going to listen to that but thats like kind of funny i guess. and the ember island one was surprisingly decent as it was basically just a cover with a piano reimagining of the instrumental. kinda cool and definitely more interesting bunch than the take u there remixes.

after that the to u remixes which confused me a little because theres the armand van helden hype remix and the armand van helden deep remix on soundcloud but only the deep remix shows up as part of the remix ep on rym?? and the hype remix isnt listed anywhere as a single etc. i dont know what thats about but they are 2 different remixes that are basically the same. theyre basically just vips of the same remix and both suck like these are laughable. the other remixes are just like really nothing like i would rather listen to the take u there remixes.

and finally the mind remixes. oh my god the wiwek remix fucking sucks holy shit. most of these remixes are the musical version of graphic design is my passion like we are just doing anything because we have a bass sound thats decent. the oshi remix was fine though.

oh also the skrillex remix of the marshmello remix of where are you now exists. that was fine.

i forgot to mention this but i also chose to check out the killa remixes ep because it was released between the to u and mind remix eps so i figured well why not. decided to also listen to the original first to know what was being remixed. the original track is pretty good you can tell it has the skrillex sauce. the quest remix has some interesting textures which was cool but the rest of them were really just nothing in a bad way.

after my prelude to the topic of the week i got hungry so i went and ate to also just take a break because this has been like 2 hours of remixes of the same 5 songs.

as for the actual subject matter of this week, purple lamborghini is the only one of these ive actually listened to before. and its fun im sorry. i know everyone like hates this song or whatever but its just fun to listen to. its not great ill never call it the best thing that has ever graced my ears but its just so fucking fun. they could never make me hate you purple lamborghini. waiting is fine! the drops were kind of cool but the rest of it didnt really appeal to me actually. chicken soup is unreasonably good. it just has the sauce i cant explain it.

with would you ever i also saw there were remixes to it and i just couldnt help myself im sorry. i had to know. after being bored by the original i embarked on yet another needless remix quest and listened to the 3 remixes. i dont know whats up with weird anomalies today but the soundcloud upload of the 4b remix is 45 seconds longer than the spotify upload and i dont use spotify and dont care to find out the difference. the remix would probably still not be that good. the others were also kind of boring so yeah i probably didnt need to do this.

back on track with show tracks, fuji opener isnt what i expected. i was thinking this might be a little closer to more of the house and garage stuff he was warming up towards but this song cooks. and i never knew this was mumbai power oh my god. i always wondered what the song in the peter griffin video was i never realized until listening to this that it was mumbai power LMFAO. what a sweet little surprise.

midnight hour was pretty solid. the remixes however, didnt quite have the same effect on me. the four tet and mall grab remixes were good, albeit without the same sauce as the original, and the other 2 just werent much of anything and were also way too long. the remix does nooottttt have to be longer than the original.

kliptown empyrean was a sign of something new... maybe... is the worn down skrillex logo a sign of something new??? maybe? it couldve been seen that way or it couldve been just to make the art look cooler. it did that part successfully so who really knows. the song itself is pretty good too! i love vocal chops though so that might be some bias thrown in there by accident. and too bizarre is also actually good ! i wasnt sure what to expect but it was enjoyable! i wish it was a little less basic though. also why is siiickbrains part so quiet LMFAO. i feel like this one will get stuck in my head...

yeah i drowned during the drought for sure. and the answer to my earlier pondering is. yeah i probably couldve skipped most if not all of the stuff i added on and been fine. im glad i listened to them to have the assurance that yeah i did do that and that i didnt miss any sort of hidden gem but on the other hand its skrillex would a hidden gem really be hidden? the actual stuff were supposed to be covering was pretty good for the most part. good selection para. real skrillex hype moments and aura next week im super excited

best track: purple lamborghini
worst track: mind wiwek remix or midnight hour loco dice remix if im limiting this to the stuff were actually talking about

gauze_ wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2026 8:12 pm the actual stuff were supposed to be covering was pretty good for the most part. good selection para. real skrillex hype moments and aura next week im super excited

i'm glad you liked them because i thought this week was a wash outside of like 3 songs lol

hprara wrote: Tue Mar 17, 2026 9:09 am i'm glad you liked them because i thought this week was a wash outside of like 3 songs lol

i wouldnt say they were like fantastic but i could definitely sit down and at least mildly enjoy most of the originals