Melina Nguyen
Melina Nguyen
The indomitable spirit of EDM is back with a back-to-back surprise album release after a genre-bending festival in Berlin
After years of teasers and rumors, Skrillex, the undisputed emperor of EDM, has finally released his fifth studio album, dropping the surprise gift to his ever-loyal audience.
The release comes after his long-awaited project titled Contra—which ended up being a two-day, multi-artist festival that rocked Kraftwerk Berlin on the last weekend of May. It also follows up his last studio album (another surprise drop) under Atlantic Records, F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3, in April 2025.
The 13-song tracklist of SOMA, released under his record label OWSLA, is the manifestation of Sonny Moore’s nonstop, evolving soundscape, drawing from genres like hardgroove techno, experimental trap, Brazilian funk, and, of course, dubstep. All tracks but one, “Tranki,” were previously unreleased IDs, floating in the ether since as early as 2021.
For the last few years, Skrillex has been wading in the waters of the underground rave scene, recruiting both rising and established producers and DJs for his latest campaign.
Production credits on “É o Bonde” and “La Noche 2”
Chris Lake, a British EDM producer and DJ, landed on the map in 2006 with his hit single, "Changes", featuring Laura V. Six years later, he received his first Grammy nomination for his work on Deadmau5’s 2010 album, 4×4=12. The producer is best known for his tech house tracks, teaming up with Skrillex for the first iteration of “La Noche” last year. He’s also half of Under Construction with Fisher and Anti Up with Chris Lorenzo.
Production credits on “Smoke” and “Anybody”
ISOxo is one of EDM’s latest fixations and the sweetheart of thousands of festivalgoers, rising to fame alongside fellow San Diego native Knock2 in their two-person collective ISOKNOCK. Associated with record labels Sable Valley and 88rising, ISOxo gained traction with his collaboration with RL Grime on the 2021 single “Stinger” as well as a music kit for Valve’s Counter-Strike 2 the following year. Since then, he’s released his debut album, kidsgonemad!, performed at Coachella and EDC, and teamed up for an iconic intergenerational b2b with Skrillex at last year’s inaugural NITEHARTS.
Production credits on “Soma”
Nitepunk, a new addition to OWSLA, is a Georgian DJ who entered the EDM scene as a dancer before moving to the United States to pursue music production. His sound is a unique blend of dubstep and bass music that can’t be defined by the strict definitions of genre labels. SOMA’s eponymous title track was a song Nitepunk helped produce, originally named “POOSHA”—the opener for Skrillex’s set at Ultra Music Festival 2025.
“i remember the feeling first time hearing and seeing skrillex’s music in my head, it felt alive,” Nitepunk wrote on Instagram. “i feel like before we even met, he was someone i learnt so much from not only musically but creatively and personally, now getting to work on such a special song meant more than i can put in words… for soma to also become the title song is beyond anything i imagined, just so grateful for sonny and so deeply honored.”
Production credits on “Thistle”
English DJ and record producer Blawan has been at the forefront of the industrial techno revival, bringing post-dubstep and techno-derived sounds. He is notable for his remix of the Radiohead track "Bloom", which appeared on their album TKOL RMX 1234567. “So excited for this burner to be out and to have collabed with such talent,” he posted on Instagram following the drop.
The full list of producers who contributed to SOMA includes Blawan, Chris Lake, Dismantle, Dj 2K do Taquaril, ISOxo, Nitepunk, Randomer, ROM (EDM), Skrillex, SLY and Tracey.