Boys Noize’s “7LLVSION,” his first solo album since 2021, is out now on his own ONES and ZEROS label, with Brutalismus 3000, ZEP, TAICHU, ABRA, Mayah Alkhateri and a Halsey vocal tucked into the credits. Every one of its 12 tracks had to earn a spot in his live set.
Written by Eric B. Thornton
In September at Portola, Alex Ridha and Skrillex were back together as Dog Blood on the Pier stage, behind so much smoke, laser and pyro that I barely saw the two of them, and the crowd didn’t seem to mind in the slightest. The music was doing the talking.
That’s pretty much been the story of Boys Noize‘s last two years: giant stages, shared billing. He toured with Nine Inch Nails as part of the Peel It Back tour, helped produce the TRON: Ares soundtrack with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, including the GRAMMY-winning single “As Alive As You Need Me To Be,” and debuted the partnership as Nine Inch Noize at Coachella in April. Now he’s stepping back out on his own. “7LLVSION” (you say it “illusion”) came out Friday, November 6, on ONES and ZEROS, the label he launched in 2025, and it’s his first solo album since 2021’s “+/-.”
So why now? Ridha’s answer to The FADER was practical. He needed more music for his own DJ sets that he was genuinely excited to play, and where “+/-” was more of a listening record, this one had one rule. According to the album notes, he “should be able to play every song on the album in a live set.” He’s also not shy about where club music sits right now.
“I feel like techno’s a bit cooked right now.”
Boys Noize, to The FADER
My take: it’s pretty dope, and it is so Boys Noize. The early reviews are in, too. FLOOD calls it “the most maximal album of his career,” AudioFuzz made it its Best Album of the Week, and Megan Venzin’s review for DJ Mag sums it up in four words: “Rock and rave, baby.” Her one hesitation is that the record lives between worlds, not quite a club album and too far out for mainstream radio. I’d argue with the radio part. A couple of these songs sound radio-ready to me, and they still bang.
THE FIRST HALF: TRADING OFF
“Illusion” is a nice opening track. Its title gets spoken through Ridha’s signature vocoder before a booming kick and snare crash in under buzzing, detuned synths, and that synth is exactly the thing to get people started. It runs at 140 bpm, but the album notes insist it isn’t techno, and across the record Ridha keeps breaking away from the straight four-on-the-floor kick.
You already know “1+1+1,” the ZEP collaboration I previewed back in October, with the Dutch artist snarling over a step-sequenced bassline. It’s groovy and fun, with plenty of attitude, and it’s very poppy, the kind of song I can hear on the radio, but it’s still banging. DJ Mag hears a weird-rock streak in what ZEP brings to it.
“Take Me Out” is a nice one, building back toward his industrial sound. It rides a Mississippi blues shuffle, and the album notes swear it can turn a stiff techno room into a party full of bikers and cowgirls on the spot.
Then comes “Nächstenliebe” with German duo Brutalismus 3000, where Victoria Daldas shouts in German over a half-time crawl that keeps building until it’s running at full speed. It’s fun, it’s rather sassy, and it’s another one that could work on the radio. FLOOD picks up on the teasing in her delivery, and DJ Mag calls it one of the record’s signature cuts. Both “1+1+1” and “Nächstenliebe” lean on the kind of step-sequenced bass EBM pioneers DAF were known for, a debt the album notes and FLOOD’s review both point out. Ridha told The FADER he’d been deep in early-’80s synth-wave, Krautrock, Kraftwerk and producer Conny Plank’s work with Can, DAF and Eurythmics, and that “Nächstenliebe” is about being anonymous on the dancefloor, dancing together or dancing apart.
“HYYTUP” swings back to the industrial side, and by now the pattern is easy to hear. Through the first half of the record, he trades off, a guest track, then one of his own, then another guest.
Track six, “Baile DF,” is one of my two favorites on the album. It’s Boys Noize with an acid sound, built around Brazilian baile funk with producer Adame DJ, and it’s a banger: funky, with nice vocals from Thalia Abdon and MC DA FRANÇA. Ridha told The FADER that Brazilian music has a punk feeling to him.
THE SECOND HALF: WORLD BEATS AND HEAVY MACHINERY
“Wake Me Up” goes back to industrial. It’s a team-up with Moscow duo Locked Club, whose “Irak” EP came out on Boysnoize Records back in 2019, and it’s the track worth reading the fine print on: the credits list vocals by Halsey, the star of Replacer, the upcoming film Ridha is scoring.
“I Need Luv” is my other favorite, another banger with world beats, the same way “Baile DF” is. It reunites him with ABRA, who sang on “Affection” from “+/-,” this time over dembow-flavored drums built with Venezuelan producer Safety Trance.
“Sh5b0mbe” is back to industrial, and it lets a half-century-old synth drift out of tune as it warms up. Ridha kept the drift in. Then there’s “Shut It Down,” a nice hard techno track with a rolling synth, which is funny coming from a guy who thinks techno’s a bit cooked. Argentine rapper TAICHU takes the mic over a beat co-produced with Berlin producer Taube.
Then comes “Ycore,” the second-to-last track and the one that got its own music video on release day. It’s the curveball: a throwback disco feel and hypnotic vocals, and at first it doesn’t sound like typical Boys Noize at all, not until the end. Mayah Alkhateri is the Emirati-Egyptian singer behind Paris duo Kiss Facility, her project with producer Sega Bodega. Here she sings in Arabic over a coldwave bassline and guitar strums that the album notes compare to Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie, at 150 bpm. Ridha told The FADER he made it quickly, and that it reflects the Iraqi side of his heritage. On a record DJ Mag hears as heavy and raw, “Ycore” is the moment of beauty the magazine singles out.
“[He] should be able to play every song on the album in a live set.”
From the “7LLVSION” album notes
The album closes on “Sireneh,” and it’s back to the industrial stuff for the finish.
OUT ON THE ROAD
The good news is these songs were built to be heard out, and he’s already taking them on the road. Next up: Echostage in Washington, D.C., on November 13, Factory Town in Miami on November 14, Bangkok and Zhuhai, China, at the end of the month, and Berghain on December 18, sharing the bill with Brutalismus 3000 in D.C. and Berlin. After that comes a New Year’s run through Australia that ends at Radar Festival in Brisbane on January 2.
He made these songs for the booth. Go find him in one.
Boys Noize, “7LLVSION,” out now via ONES and ZEROS. Stream or buy it here or on Bandcamp. Watch the “Ycore” video featuring Mayah Alkhateri here.
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