The Supersymmetry of Skrillex

Occasionally, and I do mean occasionally, an album comes out that adjusts the expectations of its own genre at its grandest scale. For the most part these sorts of shifts come from up and coming folks or complete unknowns, partially I think because they have less pressure and attention on them to deliver and partially because they’re less interested or focused on appealing to everyone everywhere. Which is to say, Michael Jordan doesn’t happen that often, and neither does Bjork or Madonna. That sort of singular obsession with pushing the boundaries of their field of work as far as they possible can on the biggest possible stages comes off to the audience as something close to transcendence or ascension or narcissism, and regardless it’s stunning to watch.

And the way in which their work or identities filter back down into the broader collective consciousness afterwards is impossible to trace. Trying to find how many incredible things have happened somewhere else because someone listened to Bjork’s Homogenic on their commutes to work or watched Jordan drop 38 points in Game 5 with food poisoning is an unknowable statistic, yet we sense that it must be true. There is a singular kind of electricity that fills your body when you see someone at the peak of their craft in full view on the global stage, and it brings something to the surface in you that you’ve perhaps practiced pretending isn’t there. Not perhaps the same capability, and certainly not the same exact path, but rather the sense that you are capable of more than you’re pushing yourself to be.

Or at least, that’s how I feel from most of those things. Not because of some delusion of grandeur but just because that’s where they takes me with a public transit level of reliability. And I only mention that because Skrillex’ new record Quest For Fire has felt that way to me since I first heard it, and his performance at Coachella with Four Tet and Fred Again… cemented that suspicion in me. He’s been perhaps not dormant but less obvious since 2014, and Quest For Fire is, I think, his 2nd official studio album. I had forgotten that he even put albums out, honestly, and this one came out of the tree line and hit the side of my music library like a lion in heat.

Something like this coming from one of the biggest artists in electronic music is incredible to me on so many levels. On the one hand, it shows just how much he loves this shit no matter how rich he is or famous he gets. And on the other hand, I think it raises the bar for what we know is possible for electronic artists of all kinds but more specifically for those in his neck of the upper echelon woods. Every edge of this thing is sharp and premeditated, and it fucking bangs in your headphones alone or in front of 40,000 people. I needed this right now for reasons I don’t think I can even fully explain, and I highly suggest you rip into it this week. Over and out.