Why you should care: Boys Noize tracks occupy space in the crates and laptops of everyone from Daft Punk and Justice to the Rapture and Soulwax. Clearly, Ridha is on to something.
Verdict: Ridha mines a diamond-hard vein of dance music somewhere between the buzzy electro-house of Benny Benassi and the barnstorming techno-rock of Justice. In other words, these are big-room anthems, the polar opposite of the minimal techno for which Ridha’s hometown of Berlin is best known. They also function more as DJ tools than as actual songs—tracks like “Lava Lava” and “Shine Shine” are as bludgeoning and repetitive as their titles would suggest, all monster riffs and zero personality. At his best, however, as on the irresistibly funky “Oh!”, Ridha is capable of beating old hands like Daft Punk at their own game, mixing dirty house beats with grinding, almost industrial synthesizers for maximum dancefloor impact.
X-Factor: Even Ridha’s best original tracks can’t top his remixes, which are among the most creative in the business. Case in point: the throbbing, seductive Boys Noize remix of Feist’s “My Moon My Man,” included here as a bonus track, which upstages the rest of the whole album.
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