Alexander Ridha, better known by his stage nameBoys Noize, is a German electronic music record producer, songwriter, and DJ. It is similar to the name of Ridha's label, Boysnoize Records, which he established in 2005. Ridha has remixed a number of other artist's work, including Snoop Dogg and Depeche Mode. In 2019, he produced Frank Ocean's song "DHL".
Biography
Ridha started producing and DJing from an early age, including a period in which he supported Felix Da Housecat and DJ Hell under the alias of Kid Alex. He's been anointed one of the "Top 10 DJ's Who Rule The World" by Rolling Stone, elected "Best Electronic Act" by Beatport 3 years in a row, and awarded with the Independent Music Award in 2010. His music is known to merge various styles, with influences of hip-hop and disco roots as well as heavy noise and electro house sounds. Ridha released his early work on labels such as International Deejay Gigolos Records, Kitsuné Music and Turbo Recordings. He established Boysnoize Records in 2005. He remixed David Lynch, N.E.R.D, Depeche Mode, Snoop Dogg, Daft Punk, Justice, and The Chemical Brothers amongst many other well-known artists and became a producer of note, having worked with Kelis, UK rapper Kano, The Black Eyed Peas, and the South Korean band BIGBANG and has also collaborated with the New York band Scissor Sisters on their album "Only The Horses". Chilly Gonzales' Ivory Tower is his first fully produced and co-written album, released in August 2010. He has further collaborated with Erol Alkan: the first record "Death Suite" / "Waves" was released on Ridha's imprint BNR, followed by "Lemonade" / "Avalanche", which came out on Erol's label Phantasy Sound. In October 2010, the first release of the newly launched sublabel BNR TRAX was presented. In 2012, Boys Noize released his third studio album, Out of the Black. In 2012, Boys Noize formed a side project with Skrillex called Dog Blood which is in the Electro genre. Dog Blood performed at the 2013 Miami Ultra Music Festival. Boysnoize Records celebrated its 100th release in 2013, with electronic dance heavyweights as The Chemical Brothers and Justice remixing BOYS NOIZE's "XTC" and "ICH R U". In 2014, Boys Noize did the music composition for a German movie named Who Am I – No System Is Safe. Ridha also collaborated with Chilly Gonzales to form Octave Minds. The self-titled debut album was released on BNR with track premieres on Pitchfork Dazed and Confused and Fader. Besides the album features a track called "Tap Dance", which features Chance the Rapper and the Social Experiment. Boys Noize released his "Go Hard" EP in 2015, a #1 album release on Beatport. In August 2015 it was announced that Ridha had collaborated with Jean-Michel Jarreon the track "The Time Machine" from the album . In 2016, Boys Noize released his fourth studio album, Mayday, which included collaborations with Benga, Remy Banks, Poliça, Hudson Mohawke, and Spank Rock. He described it as " signal against blind categorization and conformist synchronization", "a call for individuality and diversity", and "a tribute to outsiders". It peaked at number 8 on Billboards Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart. In 2020, Boys Noize started a Twitch channel where he later went on and produced an album with the input from his followers. He even used Twitch to make a poll of which tracks he should release and what he should name the different tracks. He was the first in the world to do this.
