French artist and Boysnoize mainstay Unklevon returns with more bristling electro sounds on his excellent 'Sharping Shadow' EP.

TRACKLISTING

A1. Cyborg Romance
A2. Sharping Shadow
A3. Venus Akitivta¨t
B1. NJ Breakers
B2. Euroset Cobra ft. Brodinski

INFO

French artist and Boysnoize mainstay Unklevon returns with more bristling electro sounds on his excellent ‘Sharping Shadow’ EP.

The no-nonsense Unklevon project was born after years of experimentation. It exists independently of any specific aspect of the music scene but combines all niches within the worlds of electro and techno. Unklevon debuted on this label in early 2019, and has also landed on FLASH and Nechto. His tunes have picked up notable support from Perc, Nastia and Amelie Lens, amongst other big names, and this white label 12" is an essential offering of electronic dynamite.

The superb metallic drums of 'Cyborg Romance' open with a bang. Robotic vocals, glistening synths and punchy bass all make for classy outer space electro. The title track is another high-energy electro jam, this time with subtle nods to Kraftwerk. The slithering synth lines and vocal samples, serene cinematic atmosphere and sleek drums all lock you in.

Things get much more dark and intense on 'Venus Aktivita¨t.' The synths are eerie and haunting, the bass packed with menace and the drums hit with intent. The excellent 'NJ Breakers' is more stripped back and high speed as it races on squelchy acid bass and linear drums towards some far-off planet. Last of all is 'Euroset Cobra' ft. Brodinski, a caustic world of blistering synths and lurching broken beats that casts a truly dystopian shadow on the dance floor.

Sharping Shadow is a visceral EP of innovative electronic sounds from Unklevon and Boysnoize Records.


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(Spined sleeve, 1XLP vinyl) The Boysnoize Records catalogue contains more than a decade of milestones in the life of Angeleno DJ and producer PILO. His signatures—a focus on sound design, and a digital crunch evocative of hardware rather than software—are present from the very beginning, but the evolution of Pilo’s skill and sophistication is clear as he stretches from electro to experimental to techno and back again in a slowly oscillating gradient. Yet despite his dozen or so releases in just as many years, G.L.A.M. (dropping November 8th, 2024 from BNR) is Pilo’s first proper album. That the record embraces the cyclical nature of time is apropos; the artist’s journey towards self-actualized mastery always ends with a new beginning.

Tracklist

A1. Superstar DJ – Pilo
A2. Girls Rule The World – Pilo
A3. What You Want – Pilo
A4. Loverboy – Pilo

B1. G.L.A.M. – Pilo feat. Scopa
B2. A Slow Thinning Halo – Pilo
B3. Spend The Night – Pilo feat. Sana, DEEVIOUS
B4. One Last Embrace – Pilo

Over the eight tracks of G.L.A.M., Pilo reaches deep into the dream that first ignited the passion that has driven him since. For a chosen few internet-connected American teens in the aughts, the sounds of European electro (and electroclash) trickled down their ethernet cables and instilled a fantasy of exotic, sartorial, sexually-fluid hedonism that felt a world away from the hard-edged masculinity of the hip-hop and skate cultures dominant at home. Pilo opens G.L.A.M. expressing this idealized fantasy with the track “Superstar DJ,” channeling the tongue-in-cheek self-celebritizing of Miss Kitten and The Hacker’s seminal work. “I’m a superstar, come meet me at the bar,” hiss Pilo’s heavily effected vocals, over a bassline of chopped mentasm synths driven by a swift, club-ready rhythm. The fingerprint of 2000’s electro a la International Deejay Gigolo Records is recognizably present, yet Pilo is too adept, too confident in his studio abilities to let his tracks rely on the retro. A great joy of this album is the future-facing richness of its production, always nodding to its spiritual guide of the past, while constantly breaking new sonic ground.
G.L.A.M. continues with “Girls Rule The World,” its vicious, droning bassline and sticky, titular hook making it the perfect electroclash soundtrack for a revenge plot on an ex-boyfriend. “What you Want” offers an instrumental exercise in “synthesizers are the new guitars,” and Pilo’s FX chops really shine as he warps and distorts his sounds into an undiscovered dimension existing somewhere between both. “Loverboy” enters the more melodic, Legowelt-inspired realm of electro, pushing above and beyond the foundation of analogue minimalism with flourishes of impressive sound design to construct something both climactic and cathartic. Scopa lends her perfect coldwave sprechgesang to titular track “G.L.A.M.,” with Pilo’s vocal processing offering surprises throughout and his FX chains wielded as instruments unto themselves.
On the track “A Slow Thinning Halo,” Pilo might be conjuring the haunting vocal chops and chiptune simplicity of early Crystal Castles, but the whiplash snap of his drums and sizzling production are all his own. “Spend the Night” is G.L.A.M.’s least nostalgic—and most unashamedly pop—offering, with the mic being passed between Sana and DEEVIOUS (previously featured on Pilo and Boys Noize’s 2023 track “Pvssy.”) DEEVIOUS’ sultry singing rides atop the bassline as it hypnotically struts across the floor, while Pilo’s skillful arrangement, deft rhythm programming, and atmospheric control elevate the songcraft into full-spectrum worldbuilding.
As the penultimate track, the contemporaneity of “Spend the Night” serves as transition away from the album’s previous, past-leaning exercises, allowing Pilo to step fully into the future with “One Last Embrace.” The closing track still references aughts sounds, but it borrows so widely and prolifically that Pilo’s reassemblage can only be described as singular. Here, Pilo pushes his engineering into psychoacoustic territory, as the eerie, beautiful melancholy of “One Last Embrace” explodes into a thrashing bassline that warbles like a drowning memory, struggling against the sinking weight of time. Pilo allows it to survive for 16 electrifying, gut-wrenching bars before letting go. In G.L.A.M., as in Pilo’s career, as in life, every ending can only be a new beginning.



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Lehman’s club resident David Löhlein’s warm-blooded techno is slinking, slithering and seducing its way through BNR, with the upcoming Hotel Pool EP release.


TRACK LISTING

A1. Hotel Pool
A2. La Piscina
B1. Cuando Vengas
B2. I Just Want


INFO

When picturing the German techno scene, one likely imagines the concrete monoliths of its capital city Berlin rather than the vineyards and valleys of the enchanting city of Stuttgart in the southwest. But small cities lack the oversaturation and noise of the metropolis, allowing them to develop their own inspired and distinctive subcultural visions. Stuttgart’s David Löhlein exemplifies this potential, manifesting a singular style of sight and sound through his Vision Ektase project and residency at Lehmann Club. Now, Löhlein’s warm-blooded techno is slinking, slithering and seducing its way through BNR, with the upcoming Hotel Pool EP release.

There’s no hesitation before plunging into the EP’s titular track, with its rushing fingered basslines and rolling polyrhythms. Löhlein cites solo travels in Columbia as the source of his Latin influences, and one hears them throughout “Hotel Pool” in vocal and percussive samples. Elements more commonly found in Latin and tribal house feel uncommonly fresh once Löhlein recontextualizes them within a 144 bpm techno foundation. The words “groovy” and “sexy” are usually reserved for the stuff of Buddha Bar compilations, but “Hotel Pool” is exhilarating because it serves both of the former and none of the latter.

A stream of hedonism flows beneath all of the four-tracker, but if the opener is erotic, A2 “La Piscina” is psychedelic. The bass flutters like a mescaline come-up, as infinite loops of chattering voices and deep bamboo pipe notes mesmerize. Again, Löhlein takes certain genre tropes - in this case from psytrance - and transposes them through his own stylistic signature with thrilling results. Ask Löhlein if he likes psytrance and the answer might be “Yes, when it’s techno.”

Leading the flip, “Cuando Vengas” heats up around a dark and sticky loop of ambiguous, organic origin. Here Löhlein’s masterful sample and drum programming is clearly on display, with vocal chops and subtle rhythmic variations leading the dancefloor to shivering bliss. The EP closes with “I Just Want,” a sparse, cold, and bitcrushed stalker of a track that seems to answer Baudrillard’s famed question “What are you doing after the orgy?” That the Hotel Pool EP’s wild romp ends in the Berlin oeuvre perhaps proves the city’s primacy in the German techno scene, but after a few listens one begins to wonder what rare pleasures they’ve been missing in David Löhlein’s Stuttgart.

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(2LP Gatefold in CMYK, Silver, Gold print, Die-cut circle on front cover, Jacket Interior print + Obi Band) 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)


TRACKLIST

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 min
B4. 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

INFO

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 album dives into the polar tension between the musical styles and worlds I find myself in,” says BOYS NOIZE. “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 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.

“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 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.

“When I first entered the modular synth world, there was this moment of, 'What the fuck? I’ve never heard that sound before,'” Ridha explains. “To me that was huge, because I always try to make harder sounds than those that previously exist. With modular synths, it's not like having different guitars or a keyboard with different patches. It's going one step further—you must build the guitar, then decide what it will sound like,how it will be played, in what ways it will react. This process is incredibly inspiring to me. It's this mystery of, 'What am I gonna patch together next, and what is it going to do?'”



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



“Polarization was a word that arose constantly during the writing and recording of thisalbum, whether in the news or in my own understanding of the different aspects of my music,” says BOYS NOIZE. “But ‘polarization’ assumes that everything must be black and white—the truth and the music deserve to be far more complex.”



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 NASTYor “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.

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French artist and Boysnoize mainstay Unklevon returns with more bristling electro sounds on his excellent 'Sharping Shadow' EP.

TRACKLISTING

A1. Cyborg Romance
A2. Sharping Shadow
A3. Venus Akitivta¨t
B1. NJ Breakers
B2. Euroset Cobra ft. Brodinski

INFO

French artist and Boysnoize mainstay Unklevon returns with more bristling electro sounds on his excellent ‘Sharping Shadow’ EP.

The no-nonsense Unklevon project was born after years of experimentation. It exists independently of any specific aspect of the music scene but combines all niches within the worlds of electro and techno. Unklevon debuted on this label in early 2019, and has also landed on FLASH and Nechto. His tunes have picked up notable support from Perc, Nastia and Amelie Lens, amongst other big names, and this white label 12" is an essential offering of electronic dynamite.

The superb metallic drums of 'Cyborg Romance' open with a bang. Robotic vocals, glistening synths and punchy bass all make for classy outer space electro. The title track is another high-energy electro jam, this time with subtle nods to Kraftwerk. The slithering synth lines and vocal samples, serene cinematic atmosphere and sleek drums all lock you in.

Things get much more dark and intense on 'Venus Aktivita¨t.' The synths are eerie and haunting, the bass packed with menace and the drums hit with intent. The excellent 'NJ Breakers' is more stripped back and high speed as it races on squelchy acid bass and linear drums towards some far-off planet. Last of all is 'Euroset Cobra' ft. Brodinski, a caustic world of blistering synths and lurching broken beats that casts a truly dystopian shadow on the dance floor.

Sharping Shadow is a visceral EP of innovative electronic sounds from Unklevon and Boysnoize Records.


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Today, the Berlin-based artist, DJ and producer BOYS NOIZE (Alex Ridha) announces the release of two new songs on July 16th via his imprint BNR. BOYS NOIZE’s tear-out run of collaborative singles will continue with (+)side "Nude", this time partnering up with Estonian avant-gardist TOMMY CASH, and (-)side "Xpress Yourself".


TRACKLIST

A1. Boys Noize “Nude” feat. Tommy Cash (Extended)
B1. Boys Noize “Xpress Yourself”
B2. Boys Noize “Xpress Yourself (Pt. 2)”

INFO

Today, the Berlin-based artist, DJ and producer BOYS NOIZE (Alex Ridha) announces the release of two new songs on July 16th via his imprint BNR. BOYS NOIZE’s tear-out run of collaborative singles will continue with (+)side "Nude", this time partnering up with Estonian avant-gardist TOMMY CASH, and (-)side "Xpress Yourself".

A synapse-flooding contrasting climax of soaring euphoria, (+)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 song’s aural space echolocated by atonal samples and screeches. 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 accompanying official music video is directed by Ridha´s frequent collaborator SUS BOY (Lil Peep, WEDIDIT).

"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. The release also includes "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" follow BOYS NOIZE´s latest releases (+)“Girl Crush” feat. RICO NASTY/(-) “Buchla 100”, (+)“Ride Or Die” feat. KELSEY LU & CHILLY GONZALES / (-)“IU” feat. CORBIN and (+)“All I Want” feat. JAKE SHEARS with powerful impact. Two more pillars in BOYS NOIZE's monumental rave construction; the only future task that remains - to join him in raising the roof.


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A flood of emotion and conflict surges from the two new singles from BOYS NOIZE releasing today on Boysnoize Records. The (+) side "RIDE OR DIE" is a collaboration between BOYS NOIZE and KELSEY LU featuring pianist CHILLY GONZALES while the (-) side "IU" pairs BOYS NOIZE and CORBIN for a double release driven by the intensity of a world in flux.


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(Ltd 250 copies) Recorded live on Twitch during quarantine in the last days of April 2020, this mini album captures the essence of Boys Noize‘s streamed analogue sessions. Raw and unfiltered transmissions brought to you straight from the BVNKER.

TRACKLISTING

A1. Chøker
A2. Moonsrad
B1. Mfthrfckr
B2. 4twnty2
B3. Difam


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(5 mm spine, fully printed sleeve with luxurious glossy varnish) Cover artwork by Eric Timothy Carlson (the man behind Bon Iver's 'i,i')

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The famously unconventional Djedjotronic is back with more of his unpolished brilliance on Boysnoize Records


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Villager, aka Alex Young is a dynamic new producer who has been signed to the iconic Boysnoize Records for two fresh new EPs, kicking off with the superb ‘Aura’.


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