EDM star's new album Recess is making a big noise in the pop world

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On a recent March afternoon, Sonny Moore bounced through the front door of his loft turned music studio knowing he had something good up his sleeve. The electronic-dance-music producer had just released an official app to his fans that appeared to be no more than a mobile video game called Alien Ride, pitting players against flying asteroids. Yet ominously, the top of the game screen displayed a timer frozen at 72:00:00. It soon began counting down, foreshadowing something significant. “This is suspicious, man,” read one of a flurry of comments in a fan chat room. “What does it mean!?!?!?” asked another.