Recess

Four years after his EP Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites remade the music landscape—introducing "the drop" to mainstream pop audiences and the visage of its ragamuffin purveyor to nervous parents the world over—Skrillex releases his debut album. In the years since Scary Monsters, Skrillex (a.k.a. Sonny Moore) has become a global phenomenon, and his sound has expanded accordingly: Recess is a dizzying tour through the sonic palette of global dance music. K-Pop stars CL and G-Dragon show up on the sputtering "Dirty Vibe," legendary jungle MCs The Ragga Twins light up the album opener "All Is Fair in Love and Bro Step," and Chicago's astral-traveling MC Chance the Rapper drops a verse on the standout track "Coast Is Clear," which references drum 'n' bass with its feather-light beat. Dubstep scholars will drool over “F**k That," a fathoms-deep speaker-melter that recalls the genre's early days. But lest anyone think Skrillex is here to teach a history lesson, a song like "Recess" delivers the supple sonic textures and quizzically catchy hooks that have earned him his stripes. As erudite as it is pleasurable, Recess was worth the wait.