It’s presently impossible to watch any batch of trailers in a cinema or 45 seconds of youth-geared television without being met with the lurching wubs of dubstep. Theatrical English stadium-rockers Muse, perhaps tired of your Radiohead and Queen comparisons (guilty!), are jumping aboard the trend, citing 24-year-old dubstep hero Skrillex as their spirit guide. (Quick influence report on young Skrill: He’s contributing to a Disney film and last year co-produced Korn’s bizarre dubstep dalliance.) Muse drummer Dom Howard said of the trio’s trip to see Skrillex, née Sonny Moore, perform: “We went, ‘Fuck, it’s so heavy,’ loved it. It was like a full metal gig, they had circles of death, people were moshing, I hadn’t seen a reaction like that to electronic music before. We took inspiration and came up with ‘The 2nd Law: Unsustainable.’†Which is likely a key song from Muse’s sixth LP, as the effort is titled The 2nd Law.
“Unsustainable†is also the track Muse selected to promote the record — surprising, considering they were also sitting on a terrifically Muse-ish Olympic anthem. Upon listening to that album trailer again and reconsidering the dubstep factor, it’s not too shabby. That’s partially because, as front man and guitar-scientist Matt Bellamy (he’s got a synth pad built into his ax) puts it, “The mosh pit has moved from guitars and gone towards the laptop, so with that song we’re trying to see if we can challenge the laptop.†Basically, they did dubstep with real-life, honest-to-goodness instruments.
Which leads to one question: Who’s next? Arcade Fire? Jack White? Jimmy Buffet? Buff-step?!