''Recess'' is the debut studio album by American

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ, record producer, musician, singer. Raised in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he began his career in 2004 as the lead vocalist of the ...

, initially released in Australia on March 14, 2014, and in Europe on March 17, 2014, by

Owsla Owsla (stylized in all caps) is an American record label and creative collective. It was founded by Skrillex, Tim Smith, Kathryn Frazier, and Clayton Blaha in 2011. Skrillex announced the label on August 17, 2011. The label's first release was ...

, Big Beat Records, and

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

. It was recorded between 2013 and 2014 whilst Skrillex was touring around the world. ''Recess'' received mixed reviews from music critics. It charted in multiple countries worldwide and became his highest-charting release in the United States and the United Kingdom. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' later ranked it at number 22 on their 50 Best Albums of 2014 list.

Marketing

Promotion

On March 7, 2014, Skrillex took part in an "ask me anything" online

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

post. To coincide with this question-and-answer session, his website was changed to redirect to a page featuring a talking alien face, based on the Apple

emoji An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis; , ) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram, or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from type ...

. "The face played short samples from album tracks when you clicked it." He released a mobile app, Alien Ride, on the same day which features an arcade-style objective where the spaceship has to destroy

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

s. The app displayed a countdown. When the countdown reached zero, the first song from the album was available to stream through the app. This continued in regular 30 minute intervals until the entire album was streamable for a limited time via the app.

Singles

" Try It Out (Neon Mix)" with

Alvin Risk Marcio Alvarado, better known by his stage name Alvin Risk, is an American electronic music producer, singer and DJ from Washington, D.C., US. He has released music on Owsla, Dim Mak, and Ministry of Sound. He has also released under the labe ...

was released as the album's lead single on October 14, 2013, alongside two more mixes of the song. It charted in France at number 185. The title track, " Recess", was added to

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

's C-List on March 19, 2014, and entered several countries'

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

charts including the United States and United Kingdom. The song entered the UK Singles Chart at number 57 upon album release, and was released as a single alongside remixes on July 7, 2014. "Ease My Mind", "All Is Fair in Love and Brostep" and "Dirty Vibe" also entered the iTunes charts in various countries. The music video for "

Ragga Bomb "Ragga Bomb" is a song by American record producer Skrillex, featuring vocals from British jungle music duo Ragga Twins. It was released on March 14, 2014 as part of Skrillex's debut studio album '' Recess'' (2014). It entered the Flanders Ultrat ...

" was released on April 1, 2014 and the song entered the Flanders

Ultratip Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium. Ultratop is a non-profit organization, created in 1995 on the initiative of the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA), the Belgian member organiza ...

100 at number 75. A remix EP entitled ''Ease My Mind v Ragga Bomb Remixes'' was released on November 24, 2014, with both songs doubling up as the single. "Dirty Vibe" was released as the album's fourth single in the form of another remix EP on December 15, 2014.

Other songs

"Doompy Poomp" was released on June 8, 2013, in collaboration with graphic designer Mishka for free download through his website. "Stranger" features on the '' Divergent'' soundtrack, released shortly before the album. The first song, "All Is Fair in Love and Brostep" debuted as a demo on his BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix. The song "Terror Squad" by electronic music producer

Zomboy Joshua Mellody (born Joshua Paul Jenkin, 1 June 1989), professionally known as Zomboy, is an English dubstep music producer, songwriter, and DJ whose mascot is a zombie. Biography Before Joshua Mellody was active under the name Zomboy, he h ...

was inspired by the demo version known officially as "untitled DJ tool" or unofficially as "This Much Power". As a result, Skrillex used a sample from "Terror Squad" that says "It's fucking Zomboy", covering up the "Zomboy" with a distorted and pitched down laugh.

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a

normalized Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science * Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations * Normalization model, used in ...

rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 59 based on 15 reviews indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number four on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, with first week sales of 48,000 copies in the United States. As of January 2015, it has sold 150,000 copies.

Track listing

Notes *"Coast Is Clear" features additional vocals by Peter Cottontale and Donnie Trumpet.

, (2014). ''Recess''. lbum Liner & Credits Big Beat Records/

under license to

. Sample credits *"All Is Fair in Love and Brostep" contains interpolations of "Terror Squad", written and performed by

. *"Coast Is Clear" contains interpolations of "

Big Poppa "Big Poppa" is a song by American rapper The Notorious B.I.G., released on December 24, 1994, as the second single from his debut studio album ''Ready to Die''. Produced by Chucky Thompson and Nashiem Myrick, it samples the song " Between the ...

", written and performed by

The Notorious B.I.G. Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper. Rooted in the New York rap scene and gangsta rap tradi ...

*"Ease My Mind" contains samples of " DJ, Ease My Mind", written and performed by Niki & The Dove.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2014 debut albums Skrillex albums Big Beat Records (American record label) albums Owsla albums