Why Skrillex is Electronic Artist of the Year

For those of us who have been around long enough to watch electronic music, and dubstep/bass genre’s specifically gain popularity over the past 10-15 years there were three major players in 2011/12, when this music was beginning to catch on with a wider mass of American youth. Deadmau5, Bassnectar and Skrillex. At the time, Joel (Deadmau5) was something like 30 years old, Lorin, (Bassnectar) 33ish, and Sonny Moore (Skrillex), was the young kid on the block making huge emo punk dubstep bangers, at the young age of 22/23. We all know what happened with Bassnectar and I have no desire to go into that, that’s not what this essay is about. Deadmau5 is still kicking strong and out there playing 10-12 years later but, neither of those artists have had the year that Skrillex has had here in 2023. This essay will be about why I believe ‘Quest For Fire’ should receive a Grammy nomination for Electronic Album of the Year, and in other words why Sonny is the Electronic Artist of the year.

First of all, the respect and recognition Sonny holds within the community is unmatched. From the time he was just a teenager in the hardcore band ‘From First to Last’, to moving into EDM and dubstep, making a wave, then seemingly taking a hiatus from electronic music, not playing shows nor releasing but quietly producing a Primus album, to his double release albums this year, not once has there ever been any bullshit against his name or him abusing his rockstar status. Furthermore, the amount of times I have heard different cuts from ‘Quest For Fire’  being played out all summer long from tons of different artists like Tokimonsta, Jon Casey, Saka, and a bunch more, illustrates the point I am trying to make. Skrillex has a massive respect from other artists as well as his fans and this is not only because of the quality of his music, the record or his musicianship but from the character and integrity with which he lives. As an avid lover and listener of electronic music, and a fellow producer myself, it is always clear to spot when an artist has stopped trying to evolve their art, and constantly grow and get better, but has more or less just moved into their rockstar life. As a true listener it can always be heard in the music. This has never happened with Sonny. His music has just continually gotten better and that is no where more illustrated than on ‘Quest For Fire’ . 

‘Quest For Fire’  has really elevated what we call electronic music/ dubstep. It clearly has influences from London/ the UK’s dub/grime scene, but it still has that Pop Punk flare which is so iconic of Sonny’s musical history growing up in a punk/hardcore band. The song ‘Too Bizarre’ is a great demonstration of this where he seamlessly pulls together three (or more) genres. The vocals and writing have that emo and punk sound to them, the sound design is electronic and the drums are like breaks/dnb. I remember the first time listening to it I was like: “wow he’s really fusing three, unsuspected, styles right now.” Who would think to put emo punk, dub and breaks all together? Yet, when I first got the idea this morning to really sit down and write this, it was because I realized, that’s always what Skrillex has been doing. Since the beginning that’s why I personally loved the music back then, and still love all those old hits as well as all the new stuff. While some people have a problem with his older cuts and think it’s trash or weird frequencies or get conspiracies in their heads, he’s really just juxtaposing styles with his big, saw and square wave drops, then back into those melodic, heart felt vocals on something like ‘In For the Kill’ or ‘Cinema’. He has always been doing it and ‘Quest For Fire’ is still that same way, just 10 years later with more experience and expertise under his belt. 

My favorite tracks from the album are ‘A Street I Know’, ‘Good Space’, ‘Xena’, and ‘Still Here (With the One’s that I Came With)’. I love all the more popular cuts too like ‘Supersonic’, ‘Rumble’, ‘Ratata’, and ‘Tears’, but, the songs that really go deepest in my soul for me are the one’s I mentioned, which I will explain. While I was attending the five hour Red Rocks set this past spring with some of my best friends from New Jersey who all live in Colorado now, I turned to my buddy Jordan, and said to him when ‘A Street I Know’ came on: “this is exactly what I want to do with music/ my music.” He perked up a bit and really started paying attention to the track and replied: “yeah, this does sound like you.” Back in 2012 we might have called a track like ‘A Street I Know’, “Future Bass” or something along those lines. Today it’s just good music, downtempo, something I have coined as “Textured Bass”. It just has those beautiful textures and timbres and feels really good. Those snare textures sit just right, rounded, in the frequency pocket. The bass is just a pure sine wave sub, no real driving mid bass lead, and the real melody of the tune is in the vocal chops. I also think the reason this tune hits me so deeply is because last summer, 2022, at Burning Man I was deeply moved by an anonymous Poem who’s second stanza goes: 

Spin through the streets of a strange city, 

The Lost Places, 

Run on the Edge of Harm— 

Where one wrong move could break your soul,

And reveal what it’s been hiding all along… 

For some reason which I’m not even fully aware of, ‘A Street I Know’  reminds me of this street, and the tune feels that way to me. That street I know. The edge of harm, a lost place, where life is so delicately balanced, one wrong move and everything could fall apart. 

Then there’s ‘Good Space’  another song that is almost leaning in the pop realm and is driven by quick, choppy vocals, but which stays true to form with its thick, synth bass lead on the drop. The song is what it sounds like, Good Space a feel good tune that always puts a smile on my face. It has a larger than life drop, and a snare which cuts through the frequency mix with perfect precision. While I attended the five hour Red Rocks set that Sonny played this past spring, he played ‘Good Space’  then ran it back, went into a five or six minute interlude dropping other tunes, and right as I had almost forgotten that he rewound ‘Good Space’  he let it run again. I’m not sure if this tune is as impactful for others as it is for me, I hope it is— but, for whatever reason, it felt like Sonny was almost doing that for me. Like he loves that tune as much as I do, and decided to play it twice, for himself, for me, and for anyone else who loves it as much as we do. 

Then there’s ‘Xena’  another minimal style tune but which has a crazy djembe run of drums on the drop. When I first heard the tune, I thought “wow, the timbre of this djembe is so perfectly placed within the mix—, it’s something so minimal, just the one djembe run and the sub bass but which can have such a powerful impact.” As a musician myself, timbre has become the most riddling element of music. The notes remain the same, rhythms are mostly the same, but how we pick and choose timbre, sound design, and styles makes all the difference. The exact same rhythm on a classic drum kit would not hit the same way. More so than the djembe the song is also driven by Nav Barghouti’s authentic Palestinian vocals. The vocals are a classic war cry: spooky, and packed with emotion. This song hits for me I believe because of the authentic emotion of a group of people being reflected in the tune. Skrillex illuminates what can be done with just vocals, drums and a subwoofer. The music video is just as packed with emotion, showcasing pain which can be transmuted through dance and art. 

Finally, ‘Still Here (With the One’s that I Came With)’ is another feel good, minimal house song, which I believe hit’s me personally, so deep because it is another testament to my experience in this underground electronic music space. I have seen all kinds of artists, groups of people, and groups of friends come and go over the years. There have been many occasions where I was brutally awakened with the fact that this isn’t so much about consciousness expansion (as it was for me when I first got into it), or even music itself but, as the great Lester Bangs once said to the young Cameron Crowe: “an industry of ‘cool’”. The industry of cool has left me jaded, disappointed and often times unsure of whether or not this is a true pursuit. However Skrillex defies all of this with what I said earlier: staying committed to music, art and his craft. It’s not about money, looks, or popularity, what you do to live this life and go to all these shows, or anything like that. It’s about music, it’s about art, emotion an authentic expression, that is why for me at least, it feels so good to be around his shows and his scene right now. ‘Still Here (With the One’s that I Came With)’  is what it was like for me to be at the five hour Red Rocks set, with my best friends from high school. We were all there in 2012, and we’re all still here now. We have moved all over the State’s and traveled the world, we came up together, and we are still here together. Still here with the one’s that I came with. It will always be that way. Stick with the one’s who will honor your name when you are not in the room. That is a more valuable trait than anything money, popularity or status can ever buy. 

In conclusion I have one final thing to say about the five hour Red Rocks set, and how this again illuminates why Sonny should be nominated for Electronic Artist of the Year. At this present moment he is the only American DJ that I know who would do something like this. It was larger than life. Unthinkable. While this is not uncommon in other parts of the globe, American DJ’s have their strict hour/ hour and a half,  maybe two hour headline set of their own headline tour if you are lucky. But five hours?! This is unprecedented and unmatched for the American DJ space. It shows not only the magnitude of Sonny’s musical selections or his skill and endurance, but also his dedication to craft and his love of music itself and his fans. At one point he came on the mic and said his agent and him had no idea how they would plan the show, then Sonny said he thought he would just play the whole five hours himself. His agent gave him push back, but Sonny was sure, this was the way it should go. I’ll tell you I’ve been to several hundred electronic music shows, and none of them come even close to that one. It is an order of magnitude above anything I’ve ever seen. Certain points in the night it felt like “wow, we’re only 90 minutes in, I better pace myself,” then with an hour left it felt like Skrillex could have kept spinning for five more hours. If this alone doesn’t win him electronic artist of the year I don’t know what could, or what should. It meant a lot to all of us who have been here the whole time, with the one’s that we came with. 

Until next time. 

Sincerely, 

Ian Vincenzo Crispi

The Master/Slave Dialectic

From The Vaults: 19th Century Philosophy Midterm, Spring 2017

Hegel’s doctrine at once proves itself to itself and its other by being in and for itself and at once in and for an other. What is meant by this opening statement is this: that Hegel’s system is at once so amazingly complex and at the same time so beautifully simple; and that— this very fact of his doctrine, illuminates exactly what the doctrine is trying to show anyway. That intricacy and simplicity are themselves two movements of the same Notion. A becoming movement of the same Notion, or concept. A concept which is ultimately consciousness, but consciousness can only actually become conscious by becoming aware of itself. Thus consciousness is pure desire to self-consciousness.  This essay will delve into and seek to develop these ideas set forth by Hegel, as well as attempt to explain why “fear of death” acts as a crucial role in Hegel’s system of recognition in the master/slave dialectic, and show why “it is only through staking one’s life that freedom is won.” What did Hegel mean by this and how does Hegel do this himself? Is Hegel himself free? Or another bondsman enchained to the lords of desire?

Hegel could be seen as the bondsman of the ideal itself which would be the lord. The ideal itself would be Spirit, or pure self consciousness’s desire to recognize it’s self and it’s other in and for themselves; and that this unfolding over time would be the history through which Spirit has continually accelerated it’s desire to recognize itself. Hegel goes on to demonstrate beautifully how these becoming motions collapse into themselves, and like electricity are always in a constantly vanishing flux. Hegel could be seen as the bondsman to the lord the ideal through which he, Hegel himself, serves through the Work. The work which is itself his attempt to explain the system and at once how words could never quite explain the system. Everything is itself at once its opposite, which, as soon as it becomes itself the opposite is again becoming its other opposite. Back and forth and back and forth like electrons. But through the endless Work, Hegel at once becomes aware of himself as being-for-self and at once being-for-other, which is, in this case the worthy pursuit of the ideal. It is out of Hegel’s very fear of himself dying, and thus negating his own consciousness which is in itself the pure ‘I’, in which he works so feverishly hard to inscribe into doctrine the work so that it is may thus continue once Hegel inevitably dies. Hegel himself who says, “having a ‘mind of one’s own’ is self-will, a freedom which is still enmeshed in servitude,” (Section 196, Phenomenology of Spirit, pg.119). Hegel developing the phenomenology and attempting to have his own mind and own will is at the same time the servitude to the lord the ideal. It is in itself the perfect example of the master/slave dialectic. Hegel would likely say that he gained his own freedom by staking his life to the work and the pursuit of German Idealism. 

Hegel shows in The Science of Logic that being and nothing are the same. This could be understood through the Phenomenology as consciousness’s twofold essence as self consciousness, or also desire being a negative and empty thing, and thus the filling of the desire being the movement of the Notion. As illuminated in class, the broccoli is negated for the preservation of life. Broccoli and not broccoli produce the notion and flux of life. Or furthermore as the force of motion, electricity: which does not regard the negative charge and positive charge as separate forces and distinct but again as the notion of the whole itself. Which is at once self, other, not-self, not-other, the collapsing of it all back to the start, and the circle again. The circle of circles. Thus Hegel himself experiences an emptiness, a desire to understand the phenomenological world that his senses perceive. Hegel himself who says, “Consciousness, as self consciousness— is Desire in general,” (Section 167, Phenomenology of Spirit, pg. 105); leads us to a point which shows that Hegel’s desire is to know himself and at the same time that desire is the knowing of the other- the ideal which is Spirit. This is again how Hegel’s doctrine in the very way he designed it, is always at once proving itself, negating itself, moving through the motions of the Notion, and collapsing itself back to itself. Hegel’s very fear of death is that which sets him in motion to work. Which is at once the work of Spirit and it’s other, which is himself, Hegel, and his other, itself, Spirit. Through the work he is able to free himself because he is staking himself and his life to produce the work, and therefore gains true recognition by Spirit  and Spirit gains true recognition of Hegel. 

Thus it would follow that Hegel is at once, the bondsman to the lord the ideal, but at the same time— since the doctrine shows that things are in themselves, becoming their opposites— if he has truly developed self-consciousness, he would be the lord which exists independently and for itself, by the very will of setting himself in motion to work. Motion is the Notion of the vanishing Force of the flux of Life. The master/slave dialectic is a failed recognition because the master is not willing to die for the slave but the slave has already proven he has no choice but to be willing to die for the master. Thus the slave becomes the free, independent consciousness, who has had this absolute fear of death, and thus gained his freedom, where as the master has not yet found himself at a place of absolute fear of death and the other and therefor is dependent on his self-consciousness through the object of desire which is his power over the slave. If Spirit is alive, it would have to have this absolute fear of negating itself to become a free and independent thing. Which it does by its very essence in its attempt to self preserve itself through the work of Hegel. Hegel himself who says, “‘I’, that is, ‘We’, and ‘We’, that is, ‘I’,” (Section 177, Phenomenology of Spirit, pg. 110). Thus Spirit and Hegel are the same and not the same, and what they both, the two-fold movement of the Notion, do, is explain this paradox logically. Through the movement of becoming, the vanishing flux of the Life Force, electricity, positive and negative, the pure negation and movement, desire and the negation, all collapse into themselves as the one and all unity of pure absolute Understanding. 

Sources: Hegel’s Phenomonology of Spirit & The Science of Logic

Ian Vincenzo Crispi, 2017

Coffee Shop Kids

From The Vaults: August 2015

Do you ever sit at a coffee shop and just dig the people…? Or maybe a train or bus station- an airport. Anywhere, really. People are so interesting and important.  To my left at this coffee shop in Palo Alto I have two old men playing Scrabble, to my right a middle aged couple, most likely early forties… It's a Sunday in Mid August, talks are of the coming school year, kids, work, etc. It's so simple and beautiful. I used to- and still do from time to time- ponder the infinite eternities of Mind and the cosmos and "what IT all means," but, too much of that will drive you crazy. I've recently become aware of the importance to balance those mind explorations with the simple appreciation of the people on this planet and subtleties all around that make life so gently graceful. People all trying themselves to grow and raise kids, and pass on genes and make love and find security and live fully and make some meaning of it. The couple are out to Brunch, I cannot tell whether they are in love but they are happy now. Together in each other's company enjoying a nice meal, on a beautiful central coast of California afternoon- in this moment.  It can all be so simple. 

     The men playing Scrabble seem retired and are just meeting up to talk about their lives and their kids and all the experiences they've had throughout their most likely about 65 years on this planet. THINK about that. They were 21 in 1971, approximately, the beginning of the fall off of the 60s movement (politics and war, civil rights, sexual, artistic, and of course the drugs), but which became here- in Palo Alto- the beginning of the countercultural technology movement. What does today look like through their eyes? They have seen and lived and experienced the complete metamorphosis of culture and society. In 1971 you had to find a telephone which you may or may not have owned to meet up with some friends. Now we send a text at light speed. Think about that. Think about the complete sprouting of a bud they've seen. Personal computers didn't exist yet. What I'm doing right now had to be done on a typewriter and published through some type of newspaper, magazine, or some type of print press, and was only accessible to the local area. Dig that; we are so fortunate to be growing up and young in the time we are in. I have said to a friend once that the work They've been doing since the 60s was, has been, and is still being designed for us, right now, the Millennial generation. For some reason it just makes sense to us and we know how to use it. 

     But this post isn't suppose to be about the whole quantum age thesis, I have plenty of that coming. This post is about people. Who I just found out now are all from Jersey like me. The guys to my left- is from Hackensack, and the man in the couple to my right- from Edison. Wow. Small world. See what you won't know until you start interacting and talking, and digging, and being spontaneous and opening up to people and the world. One of the guys to my right asked if I was going to Stanford, I said no, UC Santa Cruz, he said he'd rather be going to Santa Cruz. I dig that. I'll leave it there. 

     We're all on our own journey just trying to make something of it, hopefully trying to learn and grow and have experiences that we remember and take for lasting. One day at a time. One breath at a time.

Ian Vincenzo Crispi

That Feeling…

From the Vaults: August 2015

I'm at a bar wrapping up my evening, making notes in my journal trying to think of what to write about and reading Kerouac's Dharma Bums; when I saw a highlight of some baseball player hitting a home run and winning the game and getting dunked with the water and all the fans cheering their loudest and all his teammates coming to slap his back and hug him and I thought.... What a feeling. WHAT A FEELING

I mean, that's the feeling we live for right. To have people appreciate us, and make us feel important. It doesn't have to be a game winning home run, maybe your boss congradulates you for that decision you made that saved the company money, time, or energy. Maybe it's your grad professor announcing to the class your observation and how it was one that they themselves had not noticed. Maybe it's when you come back to the tonic and finish that beautiful sonata. Or blow the trumpet high into the upper ranges and every soul in the place feels your heart reaching for the stars. Maybe it's just someone answering your text, tweet or phone call. 

When someone makes you feel important you get a rush through your body, you know, that subtle little tingle... (Most likely a release of dopamine).

As humans living in this crazy, chaotic, fast paced 21st century, when someone makes you feel important it becomes a reminder that someone is paying attention, in the midst of their own chaotic, busy life, they paid attention... To you- and let you know it.

As far as performers; they work so hard for that moment, that moment when they hit the home run, catch the touch down with the toes in, hit the soprano note, complete the set; they give their minds, bodies and souls for us, and so when we respond with that cheer, that energy; that rippling effect through the nervous system that sticks the hairs up, is what we live for. 

Ya know...

Ian Vincenzo Crispi

Love…?

   From the Vaults: February, 2015

I think a lot, about… Love, intimacy and relationships.  It is a greater phenomena for me personally, than consciousness itself.  Love is undoubtably, just as mysterious as the thought of consciousness. Who can really put their finger on it. I sure as cannot. What makes us attracted to one another? Is it looks, is it tastes, is it smells, is it conversations, compatibility, is it character? Is there really a thing as "Love at first sight?"  Do parents who spend most of their time arguing really love each other? Do parents who spend more time focussed on their work, or worse, drugs and alcohol, love their children? What is this concept of Love anyway… Honestly where did it even come from? We use language as a tool to try to help us better understand the way we feel inside, or what we are thinking, thus logically someone must have been feeling a certain way that they could find no other way to describe than with those letters, L, O, V, E… Yet english wasn't even the first language… so what was the way to describe Love in cuneiform? Can there be multiple different forms of Love?
    Yes, I would think so. Here's why: I believe the "Love" we refer to when thinking about intimate others and relationships, is absolutely a different kind of "Love" than say, the fact that we might love riding our bikes long distances in the early mornings or, we might Love creating music, art, or poetry. However is that the same type of "Love" we refer to when we express it to someone we are in a relationship with…? Of course there has to be different kinds of Love. Your mother's love, isn't the same type of love you have with your spouse.
    Thus we understand that Love can mean two (or more) different things depending on context. (I guess like most concepts). We also know that Love can drive us "mad", whatever that means. If Love is this thing that we don't quite understand and can drive us to the point of insanity, then why are so many of us so concerned with it… The deeper question may be that, if Love is so unknown, and yet we seek it anyway, then there must be an unknown part of ourselves which we are trying to understand, and fulfill. Dale Carnegie writes that about 95% of us, make our choices, take actions, make decisions based on the simple fact that we have a desire to feel important. This makes a lot of sense, everyone wants to, quite possibly needs to, and should, feel important. I mean when one loses all sense of feeling any importance at all, what's the point right? That's when we hear bad news. We seek Love because it makes us feel important.
    But is that enough? Can it just be resolved there? What happens when the Love becomes a Pain, a tragedy. Divorce rates are higher than half of all marriages in the U.S. today, which leads to the question: does Love last? Can intimate relationships stay creative, energetic, romantic, and fun? Or do we become comfortable in our routines with the other person? One of the great tragedies of the Human Condition is that no matter how hard you ever try, you will not be able to Know what I am thinking, and like wise, I will never be able to Know what exactly it is that you are thinking or feeling. How do we ever come to make relationships work? How can we understand the other person enough to predict what they will want and then act on this prediction to keep them falling "in love with us" over and over again. Keeping the relationship "fresh" is without question one of the most difficult tasks. When one comes from a broken relationship the question becomes, "was I a Love child, or just a sex child?" How often is sex confused as love, and love confused as sex?
    That feeling of one's heart dropping into their stomach, shock waves of bio-electric current rattled through the nervous system, Love moves us. However painful, however mysterious and awe provoking, without it life would be bland, tasteless and melancholy. When we're in Love it is the Highest of all Highs, even if we eventually have to come down and suffer the withdrawals.

Ian Vincenzo Crispi