Today, BOYS NOIZE (Alex Ridha) announces his long-awaited fifth studio album. +/- (pronounced Polarity) is slated to be released September 24 on his imprint BNR. The Berlin-based German-Iraqi artist, DJ and producer also releases two new songs today: (+)side "Nude", which continues a tear-out run of collaborative singles, this time partnering up with Estonian avant-gardist TOMMY CASH, and (-)side "Xpress Yourself". Few artists find a unique voice and even fewer remain committed to it, but with insatiable ambition, 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 album dives into the polar tension between the musical styles and worlds I find myself in,” says Alex Ridha. “When you combine opposites, something transcendent can take place, something greater than the two parts. And with music, it becomes a magic that can create new worlds.”
The collective volume and diversity of BOYS NOIZE has put him 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 NOIZE has 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 GRAMMY nomination 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 2021 brought a GRAMMY win for LADY GAGA´s “Rain on Me,” feat. ARIANA GRANDE.
“I've always been inspired by trying to integrate opposing, polar forces,” says Ridha. “There's something really thrilling in it, and it's always a secret motivation for me; building and exploring the combination of contrasts. Techno’s earliest inspiration was the idea of combining man and machine. And you can continue from there—aggression and beauty, past and future...”
BOYS NOIZE’s +/- 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 BOYS NOIZE’s modular synthesis and processing; a new breakthrough for the gear lover.
Visual artist Eric Timothy Carlson, designer of BON IVER’s acclaimed 22 a Million, joined Alex in 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 freed from all confines, and the album is as much of an evolution for the genre as it is for BOYS NOIZE himself.
The two new singles released today will be included in +/- (Polarity) alongside (+)“Girl Crush” feat. RICO NASTY / (-)“Buchla 100”, (+)BOYS NOIZE & KELSEY LU`S “Ride Or Die” feat. CHILLY GONZALES / (-)“IU” feat. CORBIN, as well as (+)“All I Want” feat. JAKE SHEARS.
Just in time for Summer-season mainstage rinsing, (+)side "Nude" combines lighters-in-the-air, peak rave-era pads (think Orbital or Underworld) with Cash's seductive hook, before the track drops into thundering tribal percussion, the vast shape of the aural space echolocated by atonal samples and screeches. This synapse-flooding contrasting climax of soaring euphoria met by raw, bodily release begs for a rewind -- and the return of the ecstatic crowds who'll demand it. First working together on TOMMY CASH’s album ¥€$, the two iconoclasts´ shared appreciation of ex-Soviet rave culture is expressed through “Nude’s” aggressively liberatory, retro-future-shocked sound. The official music video was directed and produced by Ridha´s longtime companion SUS BOY during the pandemic and explores the expression of revealing one´s self.
BOYS NOIZE says: “This song is the epic result of the moments Tommy and I had together in my studio in Berlin raving till the sun came up, alternating between those opposite musical forces that drive rushes of energy: soaring melodicism and hard, atonal percussion. Catching that rare moment of Tommy singing softly is a personal highlight. “Nude” is an expression of our 2020 utopian dreams, everyone raving naked and free together in a time of social distance.”
SUS BOY about “Nude” video: "Nude is an expression of revealing one's self. For this project we invited people to illustrate through performance what nudity means to them while also challenging the association of nakedness with shame -- through these performances we sought to remove these ideas in exchange for beliefs that empower and liberate us."
"Xpress Yourself" on the (-)side stretches across time in its production, sound, and origins to deliver a techno tool of dark perfection. BOYS NOIZE refined the track over the span of years, shifting and re-shifting elements before testing and re-testing the results live, allowing the club's response to sharpen its edge. Anchored only by the hissing call to "Xpress Yourself", a sample of long-forgotten provenance, the final outcome reflects a precise multitude, expertly distilled from classic hardware and contemporary processing, Chicago acid influences and industrial atmospherics, countless nights of bodies reacting on dancefloors and solitary experimentation in the studio, and all with the inimitable stylistic signature of its composer. The vinyl and digital release also include "Xpress Yourself Pt. 2”, a more EBM-informed iteration of the track's evolution with an ARP-2600 driven arpeggio.
"Nude" feat. TOMMY CASH and "Xpress Yourself" will add two more powerful pillars to BOYS NOIZE's monumental rave construction that will reach completion with the +/- album release on September 24. Only one task remains - to join him in raising the +/- roof.
On Friday, July 23 @ 6pm EST, BOYS NOIZE will celebrate the release with an event in the metaverse at DECENTRAL GAMES HERE and an IRL show in BERLIN at Deus Temple HERE.
BOYS NOIZE SHOWS:
July 23 - Nude/Xpress Yrself release party @ Deus Temple, Berlin (IRL), 7PM-1AM CET HERE
July 23 - Nude/Xpress Yrself release event @ Decentral Games (online), 6PM-7PM EST HERE
Aug 22 - Pukkelpop Festival, Hasselt, Belgium @ HERE
Sept 25/26 - CRSSD Festival, San Diego, US HERE
Oct 9 - The Warehouse Project curated by Four Tet, Manchester, UK HERE
Oct 15 - Dirtybird Campout, Modesto Reservoir Campgrounds, CA, US HERE
*North American & EU fall tour to be announced shortly |
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