Boys Noize
7LLVSION
ONES AND ZEROS
German-Iraqi acid-electro producer Boys Noize didn’t need the Nine Inch Nails team in order to sound off as a success. Since his 2007 solo debut Oi Oi Oi, and a continuing-onward series of beloved remixes for Depeche Mode, A$AP Rocky, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and more, the Boys Noize brand is forever floating above sine-wave heaven. And yet between his 2024 redux of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score to Challengers, this spring’s full NIN/BN collab Nine Inch Noize, and his recent stage reunion with Skrillex as Dog Blood, the Boys Noize sound is suddenly bigger and brawnier than ever.
Taking literal and figurative advantage of that beefy stature is what gives 7LLVISION, his first new album in five years, some nuzzling muscle beyond his usual fussiness. It might be corny to say, but with with this latest chapter, the Boy has grown up to be a Man—even in the case of the slippery-sweet “Ycore” with honeyed singer Mayah Alkhateri, or “Nächstenliebe,” where Brutalismus 3000’s Victoria Vassiliki Daldas jumps onto Boys Noize’s Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft–like signature step-sequenced bass line in honor of that legendary ensemble’s late vocalist Gabi Delgado.
While this tribute is filled with harsh feminine grace and teasing “nyah-nyahs,” the elastic musculature behind “Nächstenliebe” is sinewy and musky—very “Der Mussolini.” The skeleton of DAF and the scabby pre-industrial-techno of “Sato-Sato” looms large, too, over “Shut It Down” (featuring Argentine emcee Taichu and Berlin house artist Taube) and “1+1+1,” where Boys Noize pairs with Dutch drummer-turned-singer ZEP for the ultimate guest list theater. Switching up the inspiration of NIN for DAF is sheer genius—and necessary, as the latter is too often forgotten in the ’80s electro stakes.
And yet for all of its hero worship, 7LLVSION beats to its own drummer. From the gear-grinding manicure of “Illusion” and the heavy-breathing, rubbery thumping R&B (“rhythm and bolting,” that is) of “Take Me Out,” to the sequenced unsurrendering of “Sireneh,” Boys Noize brings genuine heat to his once-chilly sound for the most maximal album of his career.
