BOYS NOIZE & ABRA SHARE OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO FOR “AFFECTION”
BOYS NOIZE (Alex Ridha, Berlin) and ABRA (Atlanta’s Darkwave Duchess) reveal the grainy, hazy, laid-back and emotionally impactful official music video for “Affection” (directed by Mad Max). “Affection” is part of BOYS NOIZE’s much lauded, fifth studio album +/- (pronounced Polarity) HERE and the follow up to their recent collaboration “UNLOCK IT” feat. PLAYBOI CARTI, ABRA’s first major label single.
Both outsiders with mainstream attraction, BOYS NOIZE and ABRA find a natural resonance in the studio, with “Affection” delivering an Atlanta bass-inspired dance floor anthem that’s both hazily nostalgic and texturally rich. The pairing of BOYS NOIZE’s precision-tuned rhythm and ethereal atmospheres with ABRA’s evocative, sticky hook is certain to make “Affection” a new classic, offering a blueprint for the future sound of the club.
BOYS NOIZE about “Affection”: “We were both in L.A. and made the song from scratch. She’s so talented, plays a bunch of instruments. She wanted to do this freestyle-inspired track, so it became a darker version. It’s more of a song than other tracks on the album. I feel way more confident making bangers and techno tracks. During the album process, I had to see my friends, 2manydjs. I had so many songs and I wasn’t quite sure what was good. They’ve been one of the first to support me and I really appreciate their opinion. We made a playlist and nailed it down to 20. One of the big things they said was “we all know you can make bangers and techno tracks, but not everybody knows your musical side. It’s really time for you to show that.” That gave me the last kick, because I love this stuff.”
ABRA about “Affection”: “Affection is a story about realizing that the love is only one way. Love isn’t love when it’s done as a favour – it actually implies the opposite. It is two people being seen and allowing the other to see them. That includes telling your partner the truth about how you feel. You shouldn’t take away someone else’s right to exercise their self love and respect out of fear of judgement or the uncomfortable truth.
That’s not love and it serves no one. Don’t put yourself on a pedestal, my heart will go on. Shout out Celine Dion.”
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 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.
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.
About ABRA:
Born in New York and raised in London, ABRA moved near Atlanta, Georgia when she was eight. A perpetual “new kid,” she sought solace in music. It was here in Atlanta she picked up the guitar and honed her unique production skills.
She quickly built her own following aas the self-proclaimed Darkwave Duchess, with a distinctive sound that combines dimly-lit R&B and icy synth pop. She produced 2015’s Blq Velvet EP and the Rose album, following them up with Princess EP in 2016 via the True Panther label. ABRA’s since collaborated with Charli XCX, Hudson Mohwake and Tiga, Bad Bunny & Playboi Carti. In 2018, she even made her cinematic debut, starring alongside Hari Nef in the gun-toting satirical horror Assination Nation.
Her critically acclaimed project Rose displayed a lot of promise in ABRA’s style and sound. Arguably unclassifiable, her airy vocals and production lean on the side of ALT-R&B with flecks of electronic and chillwave. Loosie songs like “Bacardi” and “Novacane” built further buzz for ABRA, but the Father-produced single “B.R.A.T.” at the top of 2018 became the catalyst for her record deal with Polo Grounds Music.
Last year led to a collaboration with Bad Bunny’s “Sorry Papi” off El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo, landing at Number One on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 charts. ABRA secured another win as the featured artist on Hudson Mohawke and Tiga’s “VSOD (Velvet Sky of Dreams),” premiering during Chanel’s Spring/Summer Runway show in Paris. Cosigns from budding icons like H.E.R. (as part of H.E.R.’s “Girls With Guitars” series) only fanned the flames for ABRA. Most recently her new single ‘Unlock it’, a collaboration with former Awful alumni Playboi Carti has been released ahead of her debut album.
While ABRA has unlocked a new chapter in her career, she keeps her mission clear. “My goal with my music right now is to make people feel more present and make it easier for us to connect,” she says. “Get out of our heads and back into our bodies.”
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BOYS NOIZE +/- (POLARITY) track listing:
01 Boys Noize – Close
02 Boys Noize & Kelsey Lu “Love & Validation”
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
Thu Nov 04 – Dallas, TX @ It’ll Do
Fri Nov 05 – Miami, FL @ 1-800 Lucky
Fri Nov 12 – Brno, CZ @ Fleda Club
Sat Nov 13 – Bratislava, SL @ Nova Cvernovka
Fri Nov 19 – Warsaw, PL @ Praga
Sat Nov 20 – Muenster, DE @ Fuse
Fri Dec 10 – Tilburg, NL @ 013
Sat Dec 11 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
Fri Dec 17 – Basel, CH @ Nordstern
More dates to be announced
BOYS NOIZE:
Bio 2021
https://boys-noize-discography.vercel.app/
http://www.boysnoize.com/
https://boysnoizerecords.com/
http://www.instagram.com/boysnoize
http://www.twitter.com/boysnoize
ABRA:
https://www.instagram.com/darkwaveduchess/
https://twitter.com/abra
