Five Tracks: Xilent

The rise of Xilent has been an interesting case. I remember seeing his name pop up about five years ago, and he spent the next few years on the drum & bass circuit, with a bunch of bits being signed to Ammunition (although John B did ink a pair of tunes for his Beta imprint). It was around 2011 when AudioPorn, which is run by Shimon (of Ram Trilogy/dnb fame) and Bonney, snagged two versions of Xilent's "Choose Me" that things really took off. The dubstep sound was exploding, and it felt like Xilent was at the right place at the right time. Since then, his stock rose, with the likes of Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, Sub Focus, Hadouken!, and others co-signing Xilent remixes of their material. While it feels like I've not heard a lot from Xilent in the last year, we did fall in loved with the video for 2013's "Boss Wave," and I love what I'm hearing for his next AudioPorn single, "Falling Apart," which is a collaboration with Grimm and taken from Xilent's first album. With "Falling Apart" set to drop on August 31, we figured now was a good time to peer into the musical mind of Xilent. Here is his installment of Five Tracks.

Because Mr. Bill and Virtual Riot are not only very cool guys but, on their own, make music that is exactly what I've always been about—energy, complexity and emotion. To hear them write a track together that sounds like this is exactly what I expected. And that synth solo at the end, oh boy.

Because I've been waiting for a while for an artist to reinvent this new (mostly disappointing) 'trap' trend we're experiencing into a fresh bundle of granular madness and glitches out of this world. I listen to this pretty much every breakfast.

Because the world forgets that not so long ago, all music was was whatever live instruments could produce. I admit it was quite difficult to pick just one track from the 'Worlds' album. The 156-second intro reveals Porter's never-before-heard symphonic side and hits us hard with an industrial drop out of this world chopped up with all kinds of spatial madness and emotional vocal glitches. This song sends a message that listeners these days take for granted - that no specific parts of a track should be more anticipated than others. I think this song is an abstract piece that is meant to be listened to, not danced to, and that's what I appreciate in electronic producers these days—the need to divert from the mainstream.

Because the lack of rhythm doesn't mean lack of amazingness. The era of new age space ambient has been around us for nearly 40 years and artists like Michael Stearns and Brian Eno have shown it to us in the most 'out of this world' way possible, giving birth to a lot of freshly influenced artists. I have followed the ambient scene since the '90s and ambient still keeps me company whenever I'm traveling. This Au5 track is no exception, despite Au5 being a powerful dubstep/electro artist until now. Huge respect for this guy.

Of course Xilent would pick his next single for the fifth and final track. Snag this on August 31!)