Album #40 : Skrillex - Bangarang

Skrillex

Bangarang (2011)

Look.

I'm really sorry. 

To be honest, I picked this thinking it would be another chance for some Nickelback/Aqua style comic stylings. I sat through this. I put my wife through this. She hasn't left me yet but I have heard her on the phone to her sister saying, "I can't take much more of this noise" so it's got to be just around the corner.

Anyway, my name's Daniel, and I just listened, willingly, to a Skrillex release. And I'm not even sure I can make fun of it, because it's just such a pointless musical exercise.

The Album

BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOWWWWWWW BIPABIPABIPABIPABIPABIPA BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOWWWWWWW BIPABIPABIPABIPABIPABIPA BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

It probably takes about five seconds of Skrillex's "trademark" squealing buzzsaw synthesiser lines before you are reaching for the nearest icepick to puncture your eardrums, thereby ensuring permanent and total hearing loss.

Imagine seven tracks of it.

SEVEN.

Now I'll admit, I don't know heaps about EDM. I do know that there are some seminal EDM acts, such as The Orb, KLF, Orbital and Underworld whose work I quite enjoy. I also know that EDM can be divided into about 938 million subgenres, and I do have a simple grasp of the hallmarks of most of them. Beyond that I don't know a truckload about it.

But I know what sounds good.

And Bangarang doesn't.

Sure, there are occasional moments that are interesting, catchy or pleasant (for example, closing track Summit features a great vocal from Ellie Goulding and is more of a chilled ambient track, the Doors-sampling Breakin' A Sweat has some sweet Ray Manzarek keyboard magic, and The Devil's Den is a pretty fistpumpy anthemic house track when it's not being ruined by all that BRAAAAAAAOOOWWWW business) but overall, the production is annoying, the bass drops make you want to punch people in the throat and every track bar Summit has that bullshit fucking Skrillex squealsynth in it, providing no melody, no complexity, just fucking stupid pointless noise. 

What amazes me even more is that there are people who buy this and listen to it while driving to work. It's played on Triple J at 2 in the afternoon while people are at work. Are people confused? All this pumping bass is great when you're doing FULLY SIK BRO Chap Laps, or you're thumping in the club at 2am bombed out of your brain on eccies, but I'm just not sure it translates to your accountant's office in the middle of the day.

I don't get it.

The Verdict

No. Just no. I could not delete it from my computer quickly enough. It was almost about to earn the coveted Worse Than Nickelback award, except for the fact that Summit was not completely fucking dreadful, and actually provides a quite listenable experience (which is more than I can say for All the Right Reasons). In fact, it would be hard for me to answer the question about whether this or Nickelback is the worst thing I've listened to, because while Nickelback produce the most banal, pathetic, lame, cheesy, plastic, fucked-up wannabe alpha-male douchebag rock you've ever heard in the history of life in this universe, at least it doesn't go 

BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOWW BIPABIPABIPABIPABIPABIPA BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP WHEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

for THIRTY. FUCKING. MINUTES.

My rating: half a star thanks to Summit

Standout Tracks

BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOWW BIPABIPABIPABIPABIPABIPA BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP WHEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Tomorrow, sanity returns as I, for the first time in 33 years of life, listen to a Rolling Stones album in its entirety.