On previous releases, Skrillex followed an easy, cheesy dubstep formula: chest-pounding waves of bass, head-spinning drops and squelches, and horror movie screams.
His music had all the appeal of watching Transformers hump: exhilarating at first, but things quickly became repetitive, noisy and boring.
That changes on Recess, an album onwhich the electronic dance music titan shows a ridiculous amount of restraint.
Sure, there are occasional moments of dodgy, dated dubstep: the robotic stomp of opener All is Fair in Love and Brostep is the kind of barrel-scraping fare that will appeal to those that loved Skrillex's YouTube-conquering hit Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites.
Thankfully, things get far more interesting after that - especially when Skrillex drops the drops and crafts proper tunes for his guest stars to embrace. Try the horn-drenched class of Coast is Clear, which features the talents of rising hip-hop star Chance the Rapper and is barely touched by typical Skrillex trademarks. Dirty Vibe is a big beat trap anthem helmed expertly by Diplo and that sounds like a futuristic hip-hop hit. Best of all is Stranger, a warped hands-in-the-air anthem featuring the sublime vocals of Milo and Otis' KillaGraham and an addictively woozy synth riff.
In between are the kind of engaging instrumentals you might expect from SBTRKT or late-career Chemical Brothers, like the light-footed rave antics of the title track, F*** That's soothing house melodies, and the isolated, Burial-style antics of Fire Away.
Sure, it doesn't all work: Ragga Bomb is his ham-fisted attempt at a Jamaican dance hall mash-up in the style of Major Lazer that's far too obvious to work, while Doompy Poomp's cartoonish B-grade bass throb should have been left on the cutting-room floor.
Mostly though, there's enough advancement on Recess to show Skrillex has moved beyond being a dopey dubstep bully. Now all he needs is a haircut and we can start taking him seriously.
Verdict:
American basshead embraces proper tunes. Good idea.
