Nitepunk Returns With Menacing Breakbeat Single “Umbra” After Skrillex Album Opener

Nitepunk is back with “Umbra,” his first solo release since his collaboration with Skrillex opened Soma — and it's every bit as dark as the name suggests.

“Umbra” takes its name from the darkest part of a shadow, which tells you roughly where this one lives. It's built on breakbeat and trap foundations, then buried under enough distortion that it feels less like a drop and more like something collapsing. Nitepunk has always been good at making tracks that sound physically heavy without leaning on the usual bass-music playbook, and this is a solid entry in that catalog.

The context matters here. His collab “Soma” opened Skrillex's surprise album of the same name — not a track buried at position nine, but the actual first thing you hear. Skrillex has also opened an Ultra Music Festival headline set with an unreleased Nitepunk collab, which is about as loud an endorsement as one producer can give another without just handing over the aux cord permanently.

There's more in the pipeline, too. Back in May he teased studio time with dubstep pioneers Skream and Benga, posting simply “Skream n benga n nitepunk is real” on X. Nothing's been officially announced, and fans have been speculating it could land on the Skream and Benga collaborative album that's been in progress — but until someone confirms it, treat that as a fun rumor rather than a release date.

The rest of his resume keeps stacking up: an EDM.com Class of 2026 nod, a direct support slot for The Prodigy in San Francisco, and 2025's Lawless EP. We had him on our rising artists to watch in 2026 list earlier this year, and the trajectory hasn't slowed.

What makes Nitepunk interesting is that he isn't really chasing a scene. The tracks pull from breakbeat, trap, industrial and dubstep without committing to any of them, which makes him hard to book but very fun to listen to. “Umbra” won't convert anyone who wants clean, tidy dance music. That's sort of the point.