Skrillex has done it again. Without warning, Sonny Moore dropped SOMA, his fifth studio album, earlier this week — a 13-track collaborative project released on his own OWSLA imprint that marks his third surprise release of the year. The announcement came via an Instagram story teasing the tracklist before the album landed in full, giving fans little time to prepare for what turned out to be one of the most genre-spanning records of his career.
The title itself signals intent. Translating from Greek as „body,“ SOMA functions as a full-body survey of where Moore’s production instincts currently sit — which, it turns out, is just about everywhere. From tribal-inflected trap to four-on-the-floor house, hard dance to experimental vocal manipulation, the album refuses to settle into any single lane for long. That restlessness is the point.
The opening title track, featuring Nitepunk, sets the tone immediately. Built on rhythmic drums and woodwind textures, it escalates into something frenzied and tribal before the album shifts gears entirely. It’s a deliberate statement of range from the jump.
Skrillex’s ongoing creative relationship with Chris Lake yields two of the album’s most groove-focused moments. „É o Bonde“ anchors itself in a four-on-the-floor rhythm — a relatively rare instance of Moore prioritising pocket over punch — while „La Noche 2“ follows directly as a sequel to Lake’s earlier track „La Noche,“ leaning into synth-heavy textures throughout. Together they represent a side of Skrillex that his early brostep fanbase might not have anticipated back in the Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites era.
ISOxo appears twice on the record. „Smoke,“ already a fixture in festival sets since its single release, brings high-voltage, punchy production that sits comfortably in both producers‘ wheelhouses. „Anybody“ moves faster and harder, edging toward hard dance while weaving the two artists‘ styles together without either losing their identity in the process.
Some of the album’s most intriguing moments come from its more experimental corners. „Tranki,“ featuring Tracey, Taichu, and Anita B Queen, switches between Portuguese and English vocals while playing with pacing and vocal manipulation across multiple genre references simultaneously. It’s the kind of track that resists easy categorisation, which on an album called SOMA feels entirely appropriate.
Worldly influences surface throughout. Colombian singer Feid appears on „Noche Without You,“ a comparatively lighter moment that samples Robert Miles‘ 1990s hit „Children“ — a nod that will land differently depending on how deep your dance music history runs. „Thistle,“ featuring UK artists Randomer and Blawan alongside Brazilian MC Dricka, pulls in UK percussion sensibilities and electronic bleeps that give it a distinctly British industrial edge sitting alongside the Brazilian flavour Dricka brings.
The broader cast across the album’s 13 tracks also includes Naisha, further reinforcing SOMA’s status as a genuinely collaborative project rather than a solo record with featured guests bolted on. Moore’s production runs through everything, but the album breathes differently depending on who he’s in the room with.
Skrillex has spent the better part of a decade dismantling the expectations built around his early career. The producer who helped define dubstep’s mainstream moment with Bangarang has spent recent years moving steadily away from that identity without ever fully abandoning the energy that made it work. SOMA is the clearest articulation yet of where that evolution has landed — a record that holds together not because it sticks to one sound, but because Moore’s fingerprints are consistent enough to make the whole thing feel like a single, cohesive journey through his expanding sonic world.
Sources: EDM Identity, DJ Mag
