2026 New Releases: Skrillex - Kora (EP)

SKRILLEX: KORA

SCORE: 58/100

Released by surprise for Skrillex's 38th birthday today, Kora is without a doubt his most ambitiously experimental project yet - but it leads to a disappointing output for the producorial giant, with a short set of songs and a lackluster sound that feels more rushed than prominent. 

This is something that I listened to alongside my girlfriend Valerie, as we are both big Skrillex fans and had this as something we wanted to listen to once it released - despite Skrillex being someone who I wanted to release music this year, this EP isn't what I was expecting from his palate, and it is without a doubt the weakest effort I have heard from him thus far. 

The songs lack the same memorability that has made Skrillex such a massively relished household name, and despite a flip in his output since his last two projects, this is still a solid enough effort; although a slight disappointment and a shift into a more divertive sound that many may not enjoy, especially for those who are ride-or-die fans of Moore's dubstep efforts. 

Kora is surprisingly disappointing for a Skrillex project, and it's by no means bad - it just lacks the same amplified sound as his other projects, acting more as a toned down experimental project that dives into the IDM sounds he has been known to be a fan of and experimented with on 2014's Doompy Poomp. 

This is Skrillex at his most experimental, sampling one of his old demos from his electro-pop/emo days and making a warped, distorted and atmospheric sound collage that dips and dives from glitch to glitch - making the title track one of the most important moments of artistry in his entire career. This is something completely new for the Californian producer, but with a bit more time to adjust, this may just be his most invigorating era yet. It's less something to dance and rave to and more something to take in the aspects of, and despite a weaker weight to this project, it holds itself down and makes itself worthy in his extensive discography.