Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites

Skrillex’s 2010 debut EP didn’t invent dubstep, but it did instigate the music’s worldwide explosion. The opening “Rock ‘n’ Roll (Will Take You to the Mountain)” is a Trojan horse smuggling glitched-out swagger inside disco-sampling electro-house, and from there all bets are off. The furious title track proves Skrillex a master manipulator of sound and energy, with bass riffs that feel like sculpted thunderbolts. And while his peers’ remixes cement the sound of the era’s festival EDM, the sweetly emo “With You, Friends (Long Drive)” hints at surprising twists that lie just around the corner.