Skrillex, once the standard-bearer for EDM’s most confrontational maximalism, returns with Kora, a deliberately austere EP that dismantles the mechanics of his sound and leaves the framework exposed. Released as a surprise on January 15th via OWSLA, the three-track collection largely abandons percussion in favour of texture. The result is imposing in concept, if not always in execution, favouring atmosphere and ambiguity over impact and certainty.
The opener, ‘Yo Yan’, created with Sacred Family, establishes this reduced palette through distorted bass, warped synths, and fragments of acoustic guitar. ‘Someone Said’, featuring Eurohead, Whitearmor, and Varg²™, gestures toward tension with twitchy synth layers and brittle arpeggios, but repeatedly pulls back just as momentum begins to form. The interplay between aggression and fragility is compelling, though at times it feels more suggested than fully explored.
The title track, ‘Kora’, holds the most explicit conceptual flourish. Siiickbrain’s phantasmic vocals drift over ambient pads before the arrangement dissolves into a technicolour haze, eventually punctuated by a lonely sampled metronome – a nod to the drop logic Skrillex once mastered.
Following a prolific 2025 that included FCK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3 and hit me where it hurts x, Kora emerges as a conscious withdrawal from expectation rather than a decisive new direction. Its refusal of escalation and elusion of structure is consistent, but it also limits emotional payoff and replayability. Not a career milestone, Kora is nonetheless revealing: an EP more interested in testing boundaries than satisfying them.
ANDY WARHOL is up for two awards at the 2026 Grammys: Best Dance/Electronic Album and and Best Dance/Electronic Recording (for its single ‘Voltage’).
