Boys Noize - +/-

Boysnoize Records

£48.58

Format: 2 x LP
Catalogue No.: BNR200
Barcode: 4251748700097
Release Date: 20 May 2022
Genre: Electronic

Gatefold 2LP in CMYK, Silver, Gold print, Die-cut circle on front cover, Printed Inner + Obi Strip.

An underground hero with mainstream appeal and acid-dripped, techno-punk sensibilities, he jumpstarts crowds from Berghain to Coachella. In 2021, BOYS NOIZE's fascination with traversing dualities hits a new apex on his fifth studio album +/- (pronounced Polarity)

Few artists find a unique voice and even fewer remain committed to it, but with insatiable ambition, Berlin's BOYS NOIZE turned principled dedication into an outsize presence among 21st century DJs and electronic musicians. A career punctuated by audacious cross-genre exploration has earned him an enviable fluidity of practice across borders and scenes, yet his definitive fingerprints are present on every creation. An underground hero with mainstream appeal and acid-dripped, techno-punk sensibilities, he jumpstarts crowds from Berghain to Coachella. In 2021, BOYS NOIZE’s fascination with traversing dualities hits a new apex on his fifth studio album +/- (pronounced Polarity)

The German-Iraqi producer and DJ (born Alex Ridha) never thought much of rules or restraints. His 2007 debut album Oi Oi Oikicked down the door to the music industry, brashly refracting a record collector’s deep knowledge of industrial, house, and techno through a prism of raucous energy and raw production in defiance of the aging dance music establishment’s genre conventions. Self-releasing the LP on his own label, Ridha and Boysnoize Records (BNR) became a gravitational force for an international subculture of new sounds and attitudes sparking fires across clubland. BOYS NOIZE ´s reputation had grown among the fashionable favorites of the indie revival, who sought to bolster their bands’ singles with his rapturous re-edits that fused guitars and synthesizers. With deft mixing, singular taste, and a prowess for connecting rockers and ravers on the dancefloor, the prodigious DJ began playing hundreds of shows spanning a multitude of countries near and far. A tipping point was reached, however, after BOYS NOIZE dropped his intoxicating, anthemic remix of FEIST’s “My Moon My Man,” which buzzed with the start of festival season before soaring to new heights as an inescapable viral hit. The field was now wide open for Berlin’s iconoclastic originator, with every head turning to see what he’d bring next.

While some would temper their edge after finding crossover success, BOYS NOIZEleaned harder into his unorthodox blending of rave and punk, indie and industrial. Reflecting this eclecticism, his next LP, Power, earned him even greater global attention and energized a growing fanbase. Out of the Blackbroadened the scope of his potential, proving, with “Got It,” that even SNOOP DOGGhas a place in BOYS NOIZE ´selectric universe. Both technically masterful and enthrallingly anarchic, 2016’s Maydaydelivered a cinematic soundtrack of synergistic songcraft, rushing forth on a dark wave of industrial rave. Even with his relentless experimentation, BOYS NOIZEremains devoted to Berlin’s electronic music foundations, and Strictly Raw Volumes 1 and2serve as a “no talk, all action” flex of techno-essentialist finesse.He also remains resolutely independent, releasing all of his albums—including +/-—on his own BNRimprint, which celebrates its 16th year in 2021.

One outlet is not enough, however, for BOYS NOIZE ´s perpetual flood of ideas and unstoppable productivity, and so numerous collaborative, pseudonymous, and anonymous side projects have offered new territories for creative freedom. As OCTAVE MINDS, he exchanges timbre and melody with maestro pianist CHILLY GONZALES. Handbraekes’ unhinged, avant-garde disco is the brainchild of BOYS NOIZE and surrealist polymath MR. OIZO. And reaching out across the Atlantic, a friendship with SKRILLEX brings DOG BLOOD, an overpowered meeting of minds propelling their respective talents forward in unexpected directions.

The collective volume and diversity of these projects has put BOYS NOIZE in high demand among artists seeking his proprietary sonic techniques and peerless production. Berlin’s world-renowned subterranean culture acts as a beacon for international stars who are willing to probe the margins for the innovative and unusual, and it is BOYS NOIZE ´s studio where their fresh inspirations are transmuted into even fresher music with his expertise. Over the years, working relationships have flourished and production credits multiplied, including with such luminaries as LADY GAGA, FRANK OCEAN, A$AP ROCKY, BON IVER, MARK RONSON and FRANCIS & THE LIGHTS. And as an unrivaled remixer, BOYS NOIZEhas been enlisted by DEPECHE MODE, RAMMSTEIN, DAFT PUNK and DAVID LYNCH, adding his signature to the work of artistic royalty. Even while personally embracing an outsider role, BOYS NOIZE finds his influence penetrating the center:2020 was marked by a GRAMMYnomination for his collaboration with SKRILLEX and TY DOLLA $IGN“Midnight Hour”—an unlikely blend of late-night R&B, oldskool rave and hard house—while 2021brought a GRAMMY win for LADY GAGA ´s “Rain on Me,” feat. ARIANA GRANDE.

BOYS NOIZEs +/-encapsulates a distillation of his career-to-date in waveform shape, where valleys of subterranean techno, industrial and jacking house transition into peaks of star-driven collaborations. Backed by the club adept’s battering beats and cloaked in deep, immersive textures, the songs, while rich, possess a mean bite—even +/-’s most melodic moments bare the sharpened teeth of Ridha ´s modular synthesis and processing; a new breakthrough for the gear lover.

The +/-album exhibits BOYS NOIZE ́s evolutionary blueprint for bridging diametrical musical positions, while testing the limits through self-discovered modular workflows. A sense of otherworldliness and a suspension of time is shared on “Affection,” an ethereal, trance-gated Atlanta Bass singalong featuring alt-R&B singer ABRA. One also finds this feeling in the monumental, metallic atmosphere of “Act 9,” a brooding ballad featuring VINSON. “Ride or Die” with KELSEY LU and CHILLY GONZALES has BOYS NOIZE juxtaposing the beautiful with the delirious. A tapestry of blissfully affective moods is woven through a pummeling tribal backbone, as if LU’s lush melancholy arrives to heal all the synapses seared by 140 bpm excess. The essence of +/-is found in such paradoxical worldbuilding and the undeniable attraction it elicits through the unfamiliar, a rare accomplishment in an era of algorithmic refinement

Collaboration, however, does not come at the cost of having to compromise. BOYS NOIZE ́slifelong commitment to the throbbing, dark energy of the underground makes its presence known throughout +/-. Each single, whether “Girl Crush” with RICO NASTY or “Nude” with TOMMY CASH, comes paired with a b-side that would challenge any of the aforementioned performers’s fans but revs the engines of the die-hard ravers awaiting their next hit of BOYS NOIZEat his hardest.

Visual artist Eric Timothy Carlson, designer of BON IVER’s acclaimed 22 a Million, joined BOYS NOIZEin developing expansive illustrations and iconography for the album and all of its individual works.The artwork offers an esoteric key of glyphs and symbols, mapping the contradictory influences and emotions which served as the elements for an audio alchemy. Through both image and sound, +/-surveys the anything-is-possible output of a distinguished techno producer exploring a newly opened world of distinct collaborations, freed from all confines, in a state of evolution of both genre and self. From the time BOYS NOIZE held his first vinyl record to the release of +/-today, there is still one thing this DJ from Berlin knows will never change: it’s all in the mix.

A1. Close 4:20min A2. Love & Validation (Boys Noize & Kelsey Lu) 4:09min A3. Girl Crush ft. Rico Nasty 3:48 min A4. Greenpoint 3:24 min
B1. Polarity ft. Ghost Culture 3:52 min B2. XYXY 3:43 min B3. Affection (Boys Noize & ABRA) 3:33 minB4. All I Want ft. Jake Shears 4:23 min
C1. Detune 3:46 min C2. IU ft. Corbin 4:12 min C3. Xpress Yourself 4:45 min
D1. Sperm 4:47 min D2. Ride Or Die (Boys Noize & Kelsey Lu) feat. „Chilly“ Gonzales 3:44min
D3. Nude ft. Tommy Cash 3:49 min (short version) D4. Act 9 ft. Vinson 3:29 min