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Music

2014 Artists of the Year | No. 10 | Diplo, Skrillex & Jack Ü

It’s hardly surprising that the year’s hottest supergroup has superfans in other superstars including Kiesza and Porter Robinson, both of whom offered a tribute to Sonny and Wes.
THUMP is celebrating 2014 in tracks, albums, artists, events and moments with our first annual yearbook, #YRBK14. Our Artists of the Year include well-established acts alongside some exciting newcomers. Rather than tell you why these particular ten won the year, we asked a few of their fans to do it for us. 

When it came time to recognize the individual and collaborative efforts of Diplo, Skrillex and their project, Jack Ü, we realized no one could better sing their praises than two other stars of 2014, Porter Robinson and Kiesza.

from Porter Robinson

Some of my favorite music right now is Jack Ü. It's unbelievable. "Take Ü There" is the biggest grower of the year for sure. It's all the fun of EDM with none of the pretense. The attitude of it is so carefree and so fun and totally unassuming. I just love it for that reason.

I feel like in order to understand Jack Ü, you first need to understand the context of having heard EDM in its most clean perfect form to then hear it wonky and weird, like, this is a subversion of something else.

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I like that it's self-referential in that way. What Skrillex was doing early on fell out of fashion hard because of how many people jumped on the bandwagon. I can say with confidence that there was never a time when he was like 'I'm just going to do whatever I'm supposed to be doing.' Skrillex is one of the few artists in the world that I can truly testify for how sincere he is.

I like the Jack Ü stuff the most. The Radio 1 Diplo & Friends mixtape they did was so wacky and fun, I just fucking love it so much.

from Kiesza

Skrillex and Diplo are two of the coolest DJ's in world, so the fact that they joined forces for Jack Ü is even cooler!

I was slightly shocked when I met them in Ibiza at the time, and they actually already knew who I was. They are some of the nicest people I've ever met, and working with them is both incredibly inspiring, and extremely fun. They really are passionate about what they do and deserve every bit of success they've received so far.

Jack Ü is gonna take over the world.

Porter Robinson's album, Worlds, is out now through Astralwerks. Kiesza's album, Sound of a Woman, is out now through Island Records.

THUMP Artists of the Year | Porter Robinson |FKA Twigs | Clean Bandit I Kiesza | SOPHIE | Gorgon City |Kygo | Bassnectar | Theo Parrish | Diplo, Skrillex and Jack Ü