Many have said Boys Noize is on a “generational run,” but this is inaccurate. Yes, there was a world tour with Nine Inch Nails last year, Boys Noize’s co-production of the TRON: Ares soundtrack, and the top-billed, critically exalted Coachella debut of the artists’ collaborative project Nine Inch Noize before the drop of their self-titled LP. That was in April. Then came a summer of non-stop Boys Noize performances in clubs and festival main stages on multiple continents. What’s next, however, complicates things.
Boys Noize will release 7LLVSION – his first solo album in five years – this fall, with the ZEP-fronted single “1+1+1” announcing its arrival. The track “1+1+1” drives an intimidating, key-shifting EBM bassline over a hyperactive new wave backbeat, a sound both positively fresh and decidedly analogue, occupying an uncanny valley between raw and processed, past and future. Rather than being the default metronome, four-on-the-floor kicks arrive to signal the transition from mosh pit to dancefloor with electrifying results.
After exploding out of Rotterdam’s underground scene, Dutch artist and multi-instrumentalist ZEP has built a rapidly expanding world of precision-tuned chaos. Here, ZEP is the industrial ringmaster, the tone of his voice shifting with unpredictable urgency as he snarls, wails, and shouts. The lyrics allude to a guest list gone wild, but “1+1+1” also suggests the duo is greater than the sum of their parts. Add it up, and you get a track that sounds like no one – and nothing – else.
With “1+1+1” offering a taste of what the 7LLVSION LP will bring, it’s clear that Boys Noize is on a multi-generational run. Then again, hasn’t he always?
ABOUT BOYS NOIZE:
Boys Noize (Alex Ridha) is a singular figure in 21st-century electronic music culture. The German-Iraqi artist, DJ, producer, and composer embraces and transcends contradictions—a cross-genre bridge-builder respected by techno purists, and a global headliner who never left the underground. Ridha is masterful on the decks and inimitable in the studio, crafting songs for strikingly diverse talents including A$AP Rocky, Bon Iver, Frank Ocean, Arca, Virgil Abloh, Lady Gaga, and Brutalismus 3000. He has been featured alongside Keinemusik, Shygirl, Kelsey Lu, Rico Nasty, and VTSS; remixed Daft Punk, Depeche Mode, Miley Cyrus, Tame Impala, The Chemical Brothers, and A.G. Cook; and scored the hit German hacker film Who Am I (2014), Oliver Stone’s Snowden (2016), and the forthcoming Replacer, starring Halsey. He co-founded the duo Octave Minds with Chilly Gonzales, and actively produces and performs with Skrillex as Dog Blood.
For Ridha, this long, accomplished career was merely the foundation for something bigger. In 2025 and 2026, Boys Noize performed alongside Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross throughout Nine Inch Nails’ Peel It Back tour, and co-produced the near-entirety of the TRON:Ares soundtrack, including the GRAMMY® Award-winning single “As Alive As You Need Me To Be.” The trio’s collaboration was formalized with the announcement of Nine Inch Noize, debuting with a top-billed, viral Coachella set that SF Gate called “one of the festival’s greatest performances of all time.” The Nine Inch Noize LP was released the same week to critical acclaim. Perhaps Pitchfork’s review said it best: “Every song on the album slaps.”
As a solo artist, Boys Noize continues to be an active presence in the culture, with his eighth solo album 7LLVSION arriving in the fall of 2026. Throughout his rise from clubs to festivals to stadiums, Ridha has ceaselessly supported the underground through his labels Boysnoize Records and the recently launched ONES and ZEROS, focusing on a new generation of global talent from the Global North and South alike. His punk ethos has kept him fully independent, raw talent keeps him in-demand, and obsession keeps him future-proof. No other artist traverses musical worlds like Boys Noize, and while his sound cannot be replicated, his formula is simple: embrace everything, compromise nothing.
ABOUT ZEP:
ZEP is a Dutch artist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist known for his raw energy, boundary-pushing sound, and uncompromising DIY ethos. Emerging from Rotterdam’s underground rave scene, where he built a devoted following through his independently organized “FUGAZZI” parties, the drummer, DJ, and producer turned singer-songwriter has developed a singular style that fuses rap, punk, hardcore, techno, and R&B into something entirely his own. Fully hands-on across both his music and visuals, ZEP writes, produces, co-directs, and edits much of his creative output, pairing high-impact sonics with a distinctly self-made visual identity. On his latest project, NO ENEMIES, released via PULSE Records, ZEP balances fierce individuality with a broader message of connection, self-awareness, and togetherness.
Boys Noize’s 7LLVSION here
BOYS NOIZE ON TOUR:
September 26 – San Francisco, USA @ PORTOLA – DOG BLOOD (= Boys Noize + Skrillex)
September 26 – San Francisco, USA @ PORTOLA AFTER PARTY
September 27 – San Diego, USA @ CRSSD FEST
September 27 – San Diego, USA @ CRSSD AFTER DARK
October 02 – Porto, PT @ SWITCH CLUB
October 03 – London, UK @ THE CAUSE – OAZ TAKEOVER
October 09 – Bologna, IT @ ROBOT FESTIVAL
October 10 – Malaga, ES @ BRUNCH ELECTRONIK
October 16 – Paris, FR @ MIA MAO – OAZ TAKEOVER
October 23 – Barcelona, ES @ NITSA – OAZ TAKEOVER
October 24 – Amsterdam, NL @ MELKWEG – OAZ TAKEOVER
October 30 – Alameda, USA @ GOLD BAR HANGAR
November 06 – Phoenix, USA @ OBSIDIAN
November 07 – Mexico City, MX @ ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL
November 08 – Orlando, USA @ EDC ORLANDO
November 14 – Miami, USA @ FACTORY TOWN
November 28 – Zhuhai, CN @ VAC FESTIVAL
December 28 – Perth, AU @ RADAR FESTIVAL
December 30 – Hesse, AU @ BEYOND THE VALLEY
January 01 – Sydney, AU @ FIELD DAY
January 01 – Melbourne, AU @ LET THEM EAT CAKE
January 02 – Brisbane, AU @ RADAR FESTIVAL
Boys Noize – photo credit: Ian Buosi
https://www.instagram.com/boysnoize
https://www.instagram.com/whatszep
