Revisit Skrillex’s debut album ‘Recess’ as it officially turns three years old

by: David Klemow Mar 14, 2017

It has been three long years since Skrillex made his seminal long-play debut, Recess. The record came after a year of touring his Dog Blood collaboration with Boys Noize, and effectively bridged the gap between America’s brightest, boundary-pushing bass producer and the superstar musician Sonny Moore has become today.

The album’s unique roll-out came via a smartphone app called “Alien Ride,” making the album available early to those who downloaded the app and passed the tantalizing countdown. However, Recess’ full-scale commercial release on all platforms came on ~~March 14~~ March 18 (Skrillex’s team has confirmed that an earlier version of this article had the wrong date).

Tenacious, fearless, and expressive, Recess is a high-octane thrill ride from core to perimeter, coming together as a body of instant Skrillex classics, from the moment the world first heard the hair-raising kicks behind “to get 1000 miles from the earth, a rocket would need this much power.”

The complexion of the album is an accurate snapshot of the current music landscape at the time. The 11-track LP features contributions from a then-emerging Chance The Rapper, a sneak peek into what would become Jack Ü‘s aesthetic, and Fatman Scoop’s introduction to the dance space. The album rounded together that year’s trending big room, trap, R&B, K-pop, and dubstep elements, yet somehow each track seemingly manages to hold it’s own timeless, infectious charm.

From “Stranger’s” sleek, sexy flow to “Fuck That’s” hunker-down-low appeal, Recess is a mixed bag of dance gems that, even three years later, still stands out as some of the OWSLA head’s best work to date. In 2017, the dance world is starved for the sophomore follow up to Recess, and something tells us perhaps this is the year Skrillex takes us all back to school. Until then, revisit Recess below: