Just when you least expected it, the rogue dubstep disruptor surprise-dropped his fourth album—F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!!—on April Fool’s Day of 2025. Balancing his trademark technical wizardry with boundary-pushing ideas and unhinged drops by DJ Smokey, Skrillex presented that album as a breakneck mega-mix that blended Brazilian phonk, classic dubstep, hardcore techno and bursts of pop-EDM perfection. Just over a year later, his fifth album SOMA also arrives without much warning, hot on the heels of the launch of CONTRA, his new multi-disciplinary platform and event series that kicked off with a two-day takeover of Kraftwerk Berlin. A good deal more restrained than its predecessor, the 13-track album dwells in the unpredictably satisfying pocket between Brazilian phonk, progressive house and subterranean techno. These seemingly wide gaps are bridged by way of global collaboration: “Thistle” unites English luminaries Blawan and Randomer with Brazilian vocalist MC Dricka, while Argentina’s Anita B Queen and Taichu tap in for the propulsive, unclassifiable “Tranki”.