Album Review: Boys Noize - Out Of The Black

What You Want, the opening track on Out Of The Black, says a lot without saying much at all, if you follow. It's as though German-born Berlin beat-basher Alexander Ridha (Boys Noize) has tapped into a bunch of dance enthusiasts' collective subconscious to gather research that would ultimately help him craft an album that is exactly what we all want.

As with his previous LPs Oi Oi Oi and Power, Ridha sticks to his tested and successful formula of booming bass amplified with raw electronics. Reality has influences akin to early Daft Punk, which is no bad thing, while Rocky 2 is a trip back in time before Circus Full Of Clowns nearly grinds things to a halt with a hip hop vibe. Snoop Dogg's famous twang instantly makes Got It a standout while the robotic and seemingly formulaic vocal patch on Missile just about passes “Go”. If ever there were typical Ridha sounds, Merlin and Stop deliver on all counts. Ridha manages to keep Out Of The Black steady without the swinging genre extremes, thanks in part to a more techno layered line of attack. This isn't an album to sit back and admire the hidden production layers that only appear after the 15th listen. This is an album made for the floor – a finite balance between commercial gold and underground tech that has all the distorted synthesisers, samples, diversity and hard beats you'd ever want, let alone need.

It's always nice to.find a gem of an album from a seemingly endless murky pool of mediocrity, but Out Of The Black is that gem. Efficient, accomplished and danceable.