Release Date: Mar 19, 2013
Genre(s): Electronic, Club/Dance, Hardcore Rap, Soundtracks, Stage & Screen, Dubstep, EDM
Record label: Atlantic
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Skrillex teamed up with seasoned film composer/ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Cliff Martinez to score Spring Breakers, in which Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens go wild and James Franco plays a rapper-criminal. Along with previously released songs by Gucci Mane, Meek Mill and Ellie Goulding (and one where Franco flows in character), Skrillex has embedded an EP's worth of new material (two solo tracks, three with Martinez). It's refined, minimalist, often quite lovely and even chiller than Trent Reznor's Social Network score.
Like the film Spring Breakers, there's something uncomfortable and disorienting about how easy it is to just sit back and enjoy the hallucinatory depravity of its soundtrack. Teaming up EDM superstar Skrillex with soundtrack veteran Cliff Martinez and mixing in a bunch of grimy drug-dealer rap makes sense in the context of the film, but the fact that it works so well as a stand-alone piece of music is bewildering. You barely notice that James Franco is in there somewhere rapping with Dangeruss, supposedly the real-life inspiration for his film character.
Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers was a media phenomenon before anybody had seen so much as a promotional still. For starters, Korine, the mind behind cult classics like Gummo (his directorial debut) and Kids (he wrote the screenplay for Larry Clarke's film), cast Hollywood wildcard James Franco as the uncannily RiFF RAFF-like rapper/dealer Alien while Gucci Mane makes his screen debut as his drug kingpin rival. Meanwhile, Korine tapped Disney Channel star Selena Gomez as the conflicted Spring Breaker, Faith, and former High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens as the reckless, dangerous Candy.
Hotties and homicidal maniacs come together in Harmony Korine's film Spring Breakers, and when you tell that story with a "liquid narrative" -- according to the director -- names like Skrillex (dubstep superstar and master of creating brain-warping basslines) and Gucci Mane (major-label rap weirdo, great with both the wackadoo hook and freaky, funny punch lines) must be considered. Both land on this druggy pool party of a soundtrack, with Skrillex giving up his half acid trip, half roller coaster ride hit "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites. " He's contributed some new material as well, with "With You, Friends (Long Drive)" sounding somewhere between Daft Punk and a glitchy summer, while his "Park Smoke" is a dark, abstract sound piece, echoing and stretching into the distance as unsettling roars of dissonance crumble toward the listener.
One look at the poster or trailer for Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers and it’s easy to speculate that the film could have been titled, Fans of Skrillex. The bikini-clad, once-Disney Channel stars look like this year’s Electric Daisy Carnival freshman class, and Skrillex must be what anyone involved in any stereotypical, MTV-esque spring break scene is streaming these days. So, of course, Sonny Moore’s most popular track, “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites”, kicks things off, embodying the excessive and brazen nature of what spring break represents.
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