PRICE:
$50.00
IN STOCK
ARTIST
TITLE
+/-
FORMAT
2LP

LABEL
CATALOG #
BNR 200LP BNR 200LP
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
2/3/2023

In 2021, BOYS NOIZE's fascination with traversing dualities hits a new apex on his fifth studio album +/- (pronounced "Polarity"). 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. The German-Iraqi producer and DJ (born Alex Ridha) never thought much of rules or restraints. 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 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 140bpm 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 does not necessarily come at the cost of having to compromise. BOYS NOIZE's lifelong 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' fans but revs the engines of the die-hard ravers awaiting their next hit of BOYS NOIZE at his hardest. 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. Also features Ghost Culture, Jake Shears, and Corbin. Gatefold sleeve with CMYK, silver, gold print; jacket interior print and obi.