BOYS NOIZE (Alex Ridha) shares the full details, artwork and track listing of his long-awaited fifth studio album +/- (pronounced Polarity), slated to be released September 24 on his imprint Boysnoize Records (pre-save BELOW). The Berlin based German-Iraqi producer/DJ also announces the first leg of the +/- tour which will bring him through North America and Europe (see details/tour art below).

Besides previously released singles (+)“Girl Crush” feat. RICO NASTY, (+)BOYS NOIZE & KELSEY LU`s “Ride Or Die” feat. CHILLY GONZALES / (-)“IU” feat. CORBIN, (+)“All I Want” feat. JAKE SHEARS, (+)”Nude”feat. TOMMY CASH / (-) “Xpress Yourself”, +/- will include a second song with KELSEY LU, “Love & Validation”, as well as “Affection”, a collaboration with ABRA. “Affection” follows “Unlock It” feat PLAYBOI CARTI, ABRA´s first major label single which was produced and co-written by BOYS NOIZE and released via Polo Grounds Music and RCA Records last week.

​​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 +/-.

“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.

BOYS NOIZE +/- (POLARITY) track listing:

01 Boys Noize - Close
02 Boys Noize - Love & Validation feat. Kelsey Lu
03 Boys Noize - Girl Crush feat. Rico Nasty
04 Boys Noize - Greenpoint
05 Boys Noize - Polarity feat. Ghost Culture
06 Boys Noize - XYXY
07 Boys Noize & Abra - Affection
08 Boys Noize - All I Want feat. Jake Shears
09 Boys Noize - Detune
10 Boys Noize - IU feat. Corbin
11 Boys Noize - Xpress Yourself
12 Boys Noize - Sperm
13 Boys Noize & Kelsey Lu - Ride Or Die feat. Chilly Gonzales
14 Boys Noize - Nude feat. Tommy Cash
15 Boys Noize - Act9 feat. Vinson

BOYS NOIZE +/- (POLARITY) TOUR 2021:

https://www.boysnoize.com/#tour

Sep 04 Poney Club, Toulouse, FR
Sep 12 Jardin Électronique, Lille, FR
Sep 16 +/- Rooftop Tour Montparnasse, Paris, FR
Sep 16 +/- Sacré, Paris, FR
Sep 18 GuteZeit Festival, DE
Sep 26 CRSSD Festival, San Diego, CA, US HERE
Oct 01 Elsewhere, Brooklyn, NY, US
Oct 02 Soundcheck, Washington DC, US
Oct 09 The Warehouse Project curated by Four Tet, Manchester, UK HERE
Oct 15 1720, Los Angeles, CA, US
Oct 16 Dirty Bird Campout, Modesto Reservoir Campgrounds, CA, US HERE
Oct 22 TV Lounge, Detroit, MI, US
Oct 23 Sound Bar, Chicago, IL, US
Nov 04 It´ll Do, Dallas, TX, US
Nov 05 1-800 Lucky, Miami, FL, US
Nov 12 Fléda Club, Brno, CZ
Nov 13 Nová Cvernovka, Bratislava, SK
Dec 03 Slakthuset, Stockholm, SE
Dec 10 013, Tilburg, NL
Dec 11 Melkweg, Amsterdam, NL
Dec 17 Nordstern, Basel, CH

More dates to be announced

Boys Noize - photo credit: Shane McCauley