Image by bepmp3
Time for the fifteenth 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 got up to date.
This week, we go back in time...
Gost/Myspace Era (2008-2010)
Okay, so this is a bit of a weird week. Originally, it was just going to be the so-called "Gost" bootleg that's been around for years (and is honestly probably what most got me into Skrillex as a kid). But a good chunk of that tracklist is remixes and I wanted to dedicate a week to those separately. I also wanted to touch on some of the post-Gost but still pre-Skrillex Myspace-era tracks that I think are still important but are maybe too few to dedicate a full week to. So, I frankenstein'd a playlist together consisting of some tracks from Twipz (alternate WIPs Myspace account), the Gost bootleg (sans remixes - except technically Scream N Shout but I think that one stands on it's own well enough), and the set of tracks from the "Sonny" Myspace page that were released around 2010. There are some pre-Twipz Myspace tracks that have been excluded but they're mostly just little sketches or Sonny and friends goofing around. Feel free to look at the "Sonny Moore Tracker" if you're curious.
Starting off with the Twipz tracks, they're okay I guess. I find them more interesting than good. For a variety of reasons. What do you mean Skrillex flipped a Jackson 5 cover of Frosty the Snowman into whatever 'Look Over at That' is. The Hikaru Utada flip on 'Come From The Heart' is also kinda wild. This is where we start to see some of the earliest examples of samples that Sonny would later re-use on more popular and widely released tracks. This guy really likes 'Chicken Payback', huh. There's a certain silliness about all of these tracks. They feel very lighthearted. But they also feel almost too amateurish for me to get a lot of enjoyment out of them beyond nerding out about them. Which is expected, these are all just works-in-progress.
Now onto the meat though. The next 7 tracks after 'Come From The Heart' are ones that I think are pretty heavily associated with that original "Gost" bootleg (though 'I Know Who You Are' and 'Scatting' are technically closer in relation to that initial Twipz period of output - at least according to the tracker). 'I Am Skrillex', not to be confused with the later 'My Name Is Skrillex', is a little strange. A little goofy with its "wide-load" trumpets and evil laughs in the intro, but fun nonetheless with a nice, raw electro house bassline when it drops. 'Scream N Shout' is technically a remix of a Live Last song but oddly enough I rarely find it credited this way. Or at least was the case when I was younger and first heard tracks from this bootleg. So I decided to keep it, because it's just so damn good. What a drop on this one. Sounds like an angry printer. In a sick as fuck kinda way though. I really like when the full vocals come out later in the song and then turn into that wacky ass vocoded yodel thing before it drops again. 'I Know Who You Are' is literally just a spot-the-sample to me. Angry German Kid, Bill O'Reilley, Howard Dean, the crazy lady we'd end up hearing on 'Fucking Die', the crazy lady we'd end up hearing on 'First Of The Year (Equinox)', 'Chicken Payback' again. 'I Wish You All The Luck In The World' is a cute little tune Sonny apparently made for his visual artist ROBOTO (the guy who made the animated album teasers - named David) when he was in the hospital.
The next 3 tracks are I think where I first fell in love with Skrillex' vocal chops. It might just be because I've been listening to these songs for years, but its genuinely impressive how catchy these almost purely melodic chops are. They feel almost as singable as any other vocal would be. 'Make Things For Smile' has a kind of deadmau5-esque syncopated faux-polyrhythmic(?) thing going on throughout which drives it so well. 'Scatting' has an absolutely infectious melody. 'Slats Slats Slats' is probably one of the earliest Skrillex songs I remember finding on my own. I vividly remember being on my hand-me-down computer in my childhood bedroom looking for more of his music on YouTube after I'd first found out about him from my friend and that's where I stumbled across this bootleg. I also have another vivid memory of walking through busy high school halls on the way to my bus while listening to this song but that one's not quite as interesting. Great song. Just so full sounding. All the elements just intertwine so well here.
The remaining tracks honestly might be my favourite things Sonny has ever made. That might sound crazy to say, but I legitimately haven't been able to find anything that comes close to making me feel like how these tracks do. They are a near perfect combination of all the things I like about Skrillex' music. An insane crossover of pop, emo, complextro, and even like proto-brostep at points. God, I wish I could hear more of these vocals from Sonny. It was amazing to see 'Lustbug' make an appearance on 'Kora' but oh my god the original is So Good. I remember hearing 'Turmoil' in maybe like 6th or 7th grade and wanting to make something like it so bad and trying to see if Skrillex ever used FL Studio and then fumbling with 3xOsc for an hour and giving up. I definitely made some bullshit flipnote music video set to 'Father Said'. 'Oceans' is The One. Life-changing. I want my music to sound like this. This is what it's all about.
It's kind of crazy to think about how formative these songs are to me. The many times in my music career where I've said that I got through making a song by "thinking about how I could make it more like a Skrillex song", was at least half the time referring to something made within this era. Whether that be this bootleg itself or the various Skrillex remixes from the same time frame (that we will touch on in a later week). Scary Monsters might've been the record that got me into Skrillex in the first place, but these tracks are part of what made me want to start making electronic music. And they are part of what makes me want to keep making music, full stop.
Anyways, I really need the shirt on the cover of this thing. I don't even care if its a repro at this point, I want it in my wardrobe.
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, the image is a link to it's RYM page, and also I linked the playlist I used
)Speak your mind!
