Rating: 1 / Format: CD/LP / Label: Boys Noize Records
The whole deal, apparently, with Alex Ridha’s new album Power, is that it doesn’t sound like a Boys Noize album. Given the fact that for a few years now the words Boys Noize have been synonymous with average blog-house for first year college students who’ve just discovered pills and Ed Banger (in second year they move on to ket and minimal, which is slightly more respectable), this is meant to be a good thing. But those approaching Power with optimism should remember one thing: it’s still a record by a guy who calls himself Boys fucking Noize.
Like really, did you think someone who’d call themselves that would just stop making bad music? Even when Power gets stuff right it’s wrong: ‘Gax’s chrome synths are fine on their own, but the track’s a transparent intro to ‘Kontact Me’, D-list fidget with requisite lasers, a stupid vocal sample and none of the punchy madness of Crookers, the rolling rhythms of Justice or even the simple fun of Switch. Power continues with track after track of sub-Mr. Oizo cut-up house (‘Starter’, ‘Jeffer’, ‘Sweet Light’), some try-hard minimal wank (‘Nerve’) and some decent moments ruined by the world’s stupidest robot vocals (‘Transmission’). It’s not even worth writing more: when you’re dealing with a brand of house where even the premier purveyors are dodgy at times, you’d have to be so bored to listen to this from start to finish it’s unthinkable.
Chris Campbell
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