The face of American 'dubstep' comes to Brixton.
"Sold out" shout the letters next to 'Skrillex' on the outside of the Brixton Academy. "Sold Out" scream the great dubstep unwashed next to Skrillex videos on youtube. "Last couple of Skrillex tickets before I've sold out!" bellows the tout next to the station. To be honest I just wish everyone would stop yelling – going to review Skrillex with a morbid all-day hangover is far from my best laid plan and I'm dreading it. Dreading it because I've heard Skrillex's music and it goes wubwubwub more than my pounding head.
Inside, the poster boy for US EDM is framed by a set that looks like the pillars of the giant's causeway. This tourist attraction is, however, made from lasers and projections rather than basalt. Skrillex aka Sonny Moore is a diminutive figure and this coupled with his movements, particularly when his hands are in the air, reminds me of the Psammead or Elmo. He occasionally grabs the mic and shouts things but this crowd needs little in the way of encouragement.
Far from being the sea of teenage angst I'd expected, there seems to be a decent cross section of ravers. You can see why: there's no arguing with chest-crushing bass and synth lines that make your nose hair vibrate to the point of itchiness. Couple this with 30-foot jets of flame, puffs of smoke, and laser arrays synced to the laser noises on the tracks and you have a serious DJ show. But far from being an all-out brostep-a-thon it's actually surprisingly safe dance music.
There's an incredible vibe and the huge rig in the Academy truly does justice to the more punishing bits of the bass. He slips into nosebleed footwork-esque territory one moment and then into drum 'n' bass madness the next. Fatman Scoop's 'Be Faithful' nestles next to crazy complextro. There's snatches of classic reggae, Mavado's 'Unda Skirt', and even Kris Kross' 'Jump Around' gets dirty filtered and electroed out. Ultimately it's a really good show. There are sing-along moments, lighters in the air, crowd surfing, topless fans, and a confetti cannon finale. It's like a metal gig from the Wayne's World era meets rave: it's not a dubstep gig, but an homage to soundsystem culture as a whole.
Skrillex makes crescendo music, peak of the wave business. A whole set of tunes like that would be awful but using them as appropriate crests of carefully constructed waves makes them more powerful. Far from what I'd expected, I saw instead something more akin to the Prodigy at their peak. He's the complete package. He's just unfairly become mislabelled as dubstep when he's not really anything to do with that scene. If you want real dubstep go to DMZ, if you want a snapshot of 'now' in terms of dance music, albeit the commercial end of the spectrum, go and watch Skrillex – you may be surprised.
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