Skrillex - My Novice's View of Electronic Music

My knowledge of electronic music, particularly more elusive sub-genres like dubstep, fidget and breakbeat, is extremely limited. While there are people out there who can differentiate between the bajillion different styles, I'm still to new to really pin it down with any sort of authority. This is in no small part due to the fact that I had the unfortunate experience of being subjected to exactly the kind of electronic stuff that I would never like in a million years, so I was immediately turned off.

I didn't mind listening to Daft Punk when somebody threw it on, but I wasn't going to rush out and buy a record; I liked Aphex Twin, but mainly because I'm such a huge fan of Chris Cunningham music videos. See where I'm going with this? When I wasn't hating it as a whole, I was ambivalent about it at best. Ignorant to the point that it was all "techno" to me. Don't forget, I grew up in the generation of Napster-spread techno remixes, which didn't sit well on my aural palette.

Speaking of Daft Punk, it wasn't until they released Alive 2007 that I began to take an interest in electronic music. Two things I wasn't particularly fond of at the time: Daft Punk and live albums. Who would have thought that this would be the album to wow me into a world of which I had barely even scratched the upper crust. Still, a love-hate relationship with said world persisted for quite a while. The stuff I was more inclined to like was repetitive and not very sophisticated. Not to say that it has to be, but it seemed to be better DJ food than something that stands well on it's own (suddenly, liking Alive makes a lot more sense.) I've been told that I just don't get it, which is entirely possible, and naturally there were exceptions (among them, Danger Mouse, Justice, or whatever electronic stuff Mike Patton ever worked on.)

In any case, I'm getting extremely tangential. The point I'm trying to get to is that, after much frustration, I accidentally came across work from a guy by the name of Sonny Moore, better known as Skrillex. I almost passed over him without a second glance, after seeing the word "dubstep" attached, but I listened nonetheless.

"Yeah... ok, we've been here before. Doesn't sound too different from anyth--h...holy fuck."

To be fair, he's not just a dubstep artist. I have it on the word of somebody with a lot more authority on the subject of this type of thing that he defies classification but that dubstep is certainly a major part. We'll probably figure out something to call it sooner or later, but just let it be known for now that it's in the "FUCKING AWESOME," section of my musical library.

The beats are steady and simple, the drops are heavy, distorted and down-tempo, but the production and compositions are, to these untrained ears, flawless and sophisticated.

As a friend put it. He has the Midas Touch.

When I plug in to his album, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, I feel a hundred feet tall. It's infectious stuff, and fortunately he's been getting some good exposure in the last two years. Signed on to Mau5trap in 2010, and just recently had one of his songs used in a trailer for the video game, Uncharted 3, was the DJ for the Woodie Awards, had a song used for a commercial for the new Mortal Kombat game, and released a song with KoRn.

Mortal Kombat track (duhr), and a personal fav

His stuff was good to start with, and has only become more pristine and fleshed out. Very excited to see what he does next. Unfortunately, that might take a while longer than everybody originally thought, due to the unfortunate theft of his laptops and hard drives. That equipment had his next album on it. Whoever you are, I hope you die in a fire.

Who The Hell Do You Think I Am?

I've said before that grew up with cartoons and never really moved on from them. As a result I discovered anime and watched it almost exclusively throughout my teenage years (which would explain a lot, but moving on.) Now, in my mid-twenties, I've found that anime is harder and harder to get into. I find it gets pretty formulaic and dry most of the time, and as a result writers try to do something completely crazy to catch people's attention without actually concentrating on getting some substance worked in. For example, there's one I saw recently where a race-car driver catches a virus that lets them meld with motorcycles and he becomes a super hero. No jokes. It tries to take itself seriously, too. This is generally ok by me, I don't mind the senselessness of some of these shows; in fact sometimes it's all I want to see, but it's not too much to ask to add a bit of substance, or at least something to get you attached to the characters and what they stand for.

Gainax has been my go-to studio for these sorts of things for a long time. My first anime series was Neon Genesis: Evangelion and although they come out with pointless drivel more often than not, every once in a while they release something as golden as NGE. A six-part series by the name of FLCL was a step further, trying to take the themes and complicated plot of NGE and cram it into six 45 minute episodes. The result turned a lot of people off of the series. There was a lot of symbolism that was taken literally, which ended up confusing a lot of people. However, it's actually a pretty ingenious coming of age story rivaling some of the better Western novels of the same ilk. It gets a little distracting when the main character starts sprouting TV-headed robots out of his forehead, but seriously, it all makes perfect sense.

This represents puberty. Come on, people. It's not rocket science.

After that, Gainax was pretty silent for a while in terms of releasing something really substantial as far as I'm concerned. I waited for a few years to find something golden, dressed up in a goofy wrapper, not afraid to talk about the human condition while in the same breath throwing in a few dick and fart jokes.

Well, that's pretty much the definition of a little show called Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

A whirlwind of self-parody, overbearing masculine bravado, cheesy morals, perverted jokes, giant robots and a healthy dose of T&A. Under it all, though, is a message about the indomitable human spirit and a warning about the dangers that go with it. The show starts of literally in a deep, dark pit and without stopping for breath it moves up and up into the heavens.

Our main character, by the name of Simon, is a little fella who digs tunnels all day long in his underground village for the purpose of expansion. He's essentially a worker ant, but he's really fucking good at what he does. He knows, however, that eventually the village is going to cave in and kill everybody; it's only a matter of time. As a pretty mousy guy, he's walked on by pretty much everybody in the village except for a delinquent by the name of Kamina, who insists Simon call him "bro," despite being of no relation. Kamina's plan is to break through the ceiling of the village and get to the surface; this is something the chief is displeased about, claiming there is no such thing as the surface and that he is simply stirring up trouble.

One day, Simon finds a man-sized, metal face buried in the ground while he is digging. While he is trying to show this to Kamina, another much, much bigger robotic face falls through from the surface and starts tearing up the village. Eventually, the two meet up with Yoko, a sniper girl from the surface and the aforementioned T&A, and go back to the robot that Simon found. Upon discovering that it can be piloted, Kamina insists that Simon do it, since he was the one who found it. They battle their opponent and defeat it by rocketing up to the surface, finally seeing the sky for the first time.

Their celebration is cut short, however, as they quickly find that the surface is dominated by more giant robotic faces (known as Gunmen,) and they begin a quest to reclaim the surface for humanity, picking up more allies along the way and eventually becoming "Team Gurren." The leader and driving force of this team is of course Kamina, who becomes more and more powerful through such sheer force of will that it's beyond comical and yet somehow seriously inspiring. His example, as well as his philosophy that he'd rather die than be contained, inspires the rest of the surface dwellers to fight until they are eventually waging an all-out war.

Hilarious, yet manly as fuck. By the way, his giant robot

has sunglasses like that, too.

The corny speeches and campy dialogue along side the over-the-top imagery and parodic fight sequences (giant robots combining to make giant-er robots) intensify the manner in which the series grabs you by the lapels, screaming at you and shaking you until the final episode is complete. Few shows can have a line like, "Perfect combustion of manly souls!" and get away with it, let alone have the viewers revel in it's ridiculousness and awesomeness.

By the time I had finished it, I had been infected with the show's hard-headed and bombastic glorification of the human spirit. The message isn't just to fix your problems, but to embrace the consequences of your actions in doing so, and to stomp down and over the problems that are brought up in doing so. Many stories say, "never give up." Few do it so pompously, delightfully arrogantly, and succinctly as Gurren Lagann.

Why Judas Priest Is So Damn Important

My love for music extends to all sorts of different places. Like many people I claim to have pretty eclectic tastes, but I can't say with a straight face that I love all genres even remotely equally. So let's get one thing straight: heavy metal is my favorite genre. No matter for how long, or how many times I leave it, heavy metal welcomes me back with open arms every single time I stray. One of the reasons this is true, is Judas Priest. This band is the starting point of my musical journey; they were the catalyst to me forming a more refined taste in what I listened to.

I was first introduced to their music through a friend back in high-school; a time when most people were beginning to make real, independent opinions about music. I had heard the name many, many times but was too busy listening to shitty music to care. We were exchanging music, and I handed him a Cradle of Filth CD or something, at which he recoiled and said, "My god. Let me help you," and handed me a copy of Screaming For Vengeance. Things quickly began to change.

I could not remember a time where my mind was as sufficiently blown. It was so good I was fucking angry. I ran out as fast as I could and bought Painkiller. Blown away again; it was like beating somebody to death, getting beaten to death, and getting laid all at once. I had jumped right into the metal of the time, most of which was decent but I didn't know where it came from. It opened up the door to Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Jag Panzer, Queensryche, Manowar, Dio, Motorhead and, of course, Black Sabbath.

However, most Priest fans know that they aren't always as frantic as they are in the aforementioned albums and as a result, I grew into genres other than heavy metal. After listening to songs from Rocka Rolla I had a new appreciation for rock groups like Thin Lizzy, AC\DC and Hendrix. Obviously, there are major differences but it kind of put them in a new context, and I began to like them a whole hell of a lot more.

If music be the food of fuzz, play on

Hell, I probably wouldn't even like Bach, Vivaldi or Paganini as much as I do now were it not for the scales torn up by the classically influenced Glenn Tipton. I owe nearly everything to this band, maybe even right down to my attitude in life. Although heavy metal is usually a pretty silly, tongue-in-cheek genre, it's no wonder it's fans take it so goddamn seriously.


Wouldn't you? I mean, seriously.

What's That Racket?

Life is what you make it. At least, that's what a lot of people like to say, but for me life is what other people make. Allow me to explain, but in order to do that I'll have to take you back a few years.

I was born in the desolate wasteland of the Northwest Territories, Canada. During my early years the music I heard was mostly classical, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Raffi, and a handful of Canadian folk singers. Aside from my older siblings playing the odd Cranberries, New Kids on the Block or House of Pain record, that was pretty much it. Music has been the thing I hold on to most of all out of all my loves (and by "loves" I mean both entertainment and people,) however, my horizons have expanded significantly since my days as a wee boy.

The tv I watched was mostly Disney, Don Bluth and Arthur. Although, I was eventually deemed old enough to watch Star Wars and I managed to watch the odd episode of TMNT and Ren & Stimpy without the folks knowing (I think they read my stuff too, so like, sorry Mom and Dad, but the concept of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was too awesome to pass up.) Unlike my relationship with music, I expanded my cinephilia hasn't gone much further than cartoons. I loved cartoons then, I do now, and I probably always will.

My older brother passed down his love of comic books, and my three older sisters passed down their love of fantasy novels. Both of which I now have a modest, but growing collection (they take up a whole shelf!)

One thing I brought to the table in my family was a love for video games. I was given an NES by a cousin and I was forever doomed. Unfortunately, contrary to almost everything other form of entertainment, as my tastes developed it got harder to enjoy more games. I think out of everything, this particular area is where I tend to get the snobbiest (which is kind of hilarious.) If a game isn't absolutely flawless, or at least do one or two things amazingly well, I get bored and move on to something else. This is an unfortunate truth about most of the video game industry. I am especially a sucker for good writing.

So as you can see, aside from a few other minor interests (houseplants, alcohol, and a weird relationship with philosophy,) my hobbies and interests revolve around one thing. Despite my parents best efforts, that one thing is the entertainment industry, or I guess I could more charitably say "art."

I enjoy making my own stuff; I play guitar pretty well, I'm pretty good at drawing cartoons, I write some stuff that I hope is at least a little bit thought provoking. However, I don't really excel at any of these things, nor do I particularly care to. There's one thing I'm really good at, though. Talking. I can talk for ages about the shit that I like, and that's what I'll be doing here. From here on out, I'll be reviewing games, albums, books, bands, genres, movies, comics or whatever bit of media strikes my fancy. It might be up to date, or it might be something from the 1980's. I don't even know if anybody will find this place of any use to them, but then again, the times where I've been particularly useful are few and far between, so why should this be any different.