Review Summary: You can't blame a guy for releasing too much material, can you?
The mindset of Electronic producer Skrillex must be more of the same is good, otherwise this mini e.p. wouldn't exist. Best known for his song Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites, Skrillex felt is was necessary to bestow upon the world three new songs accompanied with four remixes of his signature song only seven months since the original hit the scene. The result is a fun, but bloated and very unnecessary release.
More Monsters And Sprites really only has two new songs (First of the year and ruffnex) and the rest is remixes. Nether of the new songs are up to par with his previous release, and the remixes while decent are completely unnecessary. First of the year is a pretty standard Skrillex song. It has a nice melodic riff, it has womp womp parts, and it has an audio sample of someone screaming. Not much can be said about this track but hey, it's there. The second track is where things get interesting. It seems Skrillex is starting to experiment a bit as Ruffnex isn't as atypical as most of his other tracks. It has more of an ambient feel to it, but it isn't groundbreaking or anything. It's still a fairly straightforward and obvious track that any teenage dubstep fan could digest after only a couple awkward listens. The instrumentation doesn't sound very typical of his tracks. It's more subtle and natural sounding than the usual dubstep tones. The middle section of the song is more typical dubstep than the rest, with a wobbly bass line and all the laser sound trimmings. The middle section definitely drags, and at nearly 5 minutes the song is just too long.
Now onto the remixes. The third track is a remix of Ruffnex, and the last four tracks are remixes of Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites. The remix of Ruffnex starts off almost exactly how Ruffnex ends, which makes you feel like you have it on repeat. This track seems even more unnecessary than the other remixes. It's almost the same song, just faster and shorter with slightly different instrumentation. Not much more can be said about this track but it's better than the original only because it's shorter. The first two SMANS remixes are criminally long. Combined, they clock in at 13 minutes where as the original song is four minutes. It feels like Skrillex was trying to extend the length of the e.p. to convince people it's worth purchasing. The remixes don't really warrant repeat listens as they don't really do anything new, but if you need something to crank in your car look no further. The third and fourth remixes aren't really worth mentioning. They offer nothing new to the table and they seem to blend together. Although too long, the second remix is the one worth listening to. It starts off with a big build up and even has a riff unique to the song. It does enough different to keep it fresh and it also throws in parts from the original song to keep your attention. It's nice to hear other producers interpretation of a song, but in the end none of the remixes are any were near as good as the original they're replicating.
It's not that the songs are bad, it's that they aren't well placed or at all necessary. Not many artists feel they need seven total remixes of the same eight month old song, but I guess Skrillex felt otherwise. Everything about this album screams average and aimless, but More Monsters And Sprites is still a fun listen. The new songs show room for improvement, and as long as Sonny doesn't just stick to his usual formula, he could make an interesting first full length.
