First a DJ, then a producer, then a label owner Boys Noize has become one of the dominating figures on the electro scene.
Adding a techno edge to his music, Boys Noize has crafted a steady series of dancefloor mashing bangers. The German producer has an up front energy, an infectious enthusiasm which ripples through his music, virtually demanding that you get up off your set and dance.
An in demand remix artist, Boys Noize recently decided tie together these guest appearances. A disparate array of productions, the remixes demonstrate the sheer versatility of the German producer.
The twin CD collection ‘Boys Noize: Remixes (2004-2011)’ is out next Monday (December 5th) and to celebrate ClashMusic invited Alexander Ridha to give us a track by track guide.
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CD 1
Boys Noise – The Remixes 2004-2011(CD 1) by Sainted PR
1. Röyksopp ‘Happy Up Here’
It was January 2009 when Röyskopp asked me to do this remix. At that time I was in Australia for one month, so I had to produce this one on my laptop which I’m not a fan of at all. I started with a faster version around 124bpm and didn’t like it until I kept the original tempo of 103bpm. Bam!
2. Feist ‘My Moon My Man’
I remember being in my studio thinking “now this is a cool disco remix” – I played a new bass, programmed my 808, played some juno106 keys and used the talk-box. I never thought that this one would turn into a serious ‘banger’, but somehow it did. The best thing which happened through this remix was meeting Gonzales who loved it. Later this encounter lead to one of my favorite works ever, Chilly Gonzo´s album ‘Ivory Tower’.
3. Depeche Mode ‘Personal Jesus’
I went to their concert in Berlin in 2005 and couple of days later their label/management asked me if I’d be up to remix their classic ‘Personal Jesus’ for their forthcoming remix compilation. That was a really big moment for me, as I have always been a huge fan. There was a crazy amount of stems – around 150 – and hearing Dave Gahan without any EFX on his vocals gave me goose bumps. I was lucky because they asked another 20 producers to remix this song and in the end the band decided to go with mine.
4. Late Of The Pier ‘Focker’
One of my favorite UK bands ever! I just edited the original because the part I used comes only in the very end of the song. So basically I sampled it to make it my own ‘terror’ weapon and the band decided to release it.
5. N*E*R*D ‘Hot ‘n Fun’
I have always been a big fan of Neptunes and N*E*R*D and when their US-label asked me to remix this joint I definitely had to do it. I have to admit that I did this remix thinking ‘ok, I’m gonna do a remix the US guys gonna like’ – haha. After the remix I supported N*E*R*D on their Australia tour where I met Pharrell. Yay!
6. Snoop Dogg ‘Sexual Eruption’
My first idea for this remix was what later came out as my own track ‘Starter’! I thought that the synth & noises were too much and it didn’t really fit to the rap vocals either. Hence I went to the opposite, going minimal and programming something with my electron machine drum and – ta da – the beat was so sick! I played around with the frequency of the kick drum, what you rarely hear, but makes it so special. When I sent it to my friend DJ Feadz he said it was something like a Sleeparchive remix – which I thought was really cool.
7. Cut Copy ‘Lights & Music’
I did this one in like 3 hours. Sometimes those are the best!
8. Modeselektor ‘Monkeyflip’
My Berlin buddies have remixed my track ‘Jeffer’ and the deal was a swap. So in return I made this banger for them.
9. Sebastian Tellier ‘L’amour et la Violence’
Daft Punk’s Guy Manual produced this album so I was very keen to get my hands on these stems. For some reasons they were fucked up! Some of the tracks had one element on the left side and one on the right side (in just one track). Anyway, I worked it out with this electronica version, more chilled but a bit epic too. I also did another club version called ‘Euro Mix’ which is more DJ-friendly but I prefer to give you this one.
10. Editors ‘You don’t know love’
Beautiful song and a band also present on my iPod, but to play this in the club? I had to change the vocals first so I put them through a vocoder and while working on the music I somehow had Soulwax & Stuart Price in my head giving me the direction of this remix. I think you can hear it too.
11. David Lynch ‘Good Day Today’
UK’s Rob Da Bank singed this to his label and asked me for a remix – at first I thought he was joking. But when I heard the song I loved it so he sent me the stems. Unfortunately there were 3 tracks only. Drums, pad/keys & the vocoder voice so I had to build new music around it. I considered 2 ways for this remix to be: first a standard house/techno version where I replay the chords and give it an Ibiza vibe OR second way just fuck it up. Guess what I did?
12. Justice ‘Phantom Pt. II’
That wasn’t an easy one. I think I did 5 versions and it took me weeks to finish it. The only thing all versions shared was my robot vocals. On the first versions I tried to re-create the sound of the original but it was impossible, so I started to use the stems of the original. I chopped up the main synth and replayed the other synths plus made a big 4/4 beat. I remember talking to Xavier everyday about the latest version I sent and he was saying I should make the break and build-up longer. The next day I’ve sent a new version and still he told me to do the build-up even longer, haha. Anyway, I gave them 2 versions in the end. They released the ‘Vox Mix’ only and here, this is the ‘Unreleased Turbine Mix’ – the one I always played out.
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CD 2
Boys Noise – The Remixes 2004-2011(CD 2) by Sainted PR
1. Chemical Brothers ‘Swoon’
The guys asked me personally for a remix and we agreed on a swap, as well. I started the remix on my laptop and got the basic idea within 2 hours. When I got to my studio I just added some spice and that was it.
2. Teenage Bad Girl ‘Cocotte’
Really easy one for me too. I just edited it a bit, added some sruff plus new beats, done. It turned out being one of the biggest tracks I played in that time.
3. Scissor Sisters ‘Invisible Light’
The original production on this is so dope! This remix has a weird arrangement though, it builds up smoothly to the harder part, but this comes only once during the full song. Maybe I should have taken more time to make it a 10 min version?!
4. Daft Punk ‘End Of Line’
Disney invited me to play the after party of the official TRON Legacy premiere in Hollywood. Hollywood parties are a bit weird, but since it was TRON and Daft Punk were to attend, I had no other choice than doing it. I prepared a special DJ set, the coolest house tracks from the 90s to play for Thomas and Guy only – I didn’t expect much more people to listen anyway, haha. Couple of months later I was asked to remix one of the TRON songs and that got me even more stressed out. First, was there ever a really good remix for Daft Punk? The Gonzales one is dope and yes, SebastiAn but since 1995 were there any good ones?
5. Gonzales ‘Working Together’
What a great guy! He asked me to do this after he heard my Feist remix but of course I couldn’t do anything similar. He liked what I did and asked me if I would be into doing a full album with him. That’s how ‘Ivory Tower’ was born. So happy, so lucky!
6. Marilyn Manson ‘Putting Holes Into Happiness’
The original is a super slow song and I slowed it down even more in order to be able to then double up the tempo. Good.
7. Charlotte Gainsbourg ‘Trick Pony’
I did 2 versions and the first one was too serious on some disco-like vibe so I tried something completely different, going back to the original tempo. I think it’s a pretty cool mix of western-hiphop-punk-grime?!
8. Kaiser Chiefs ‘Everyday I Love You Less And Less’
The original is a 162bpm rock-punk-pop song and my first version was on the same tempo. I re-played all instruments with my instruments and it was really fun programming my 808 on that tempo, specially the tom part. But it was too much of a laugh so I tried to pitch it down to 128bpm and suddenly it was rockin’!
9. Djedjotronic feat. Spoek ‘Dirty & Hard’
I had just signed Djedjotronic to Boysnoize Records and we needed remixes. For some reasons we couldn’t get the remixers we were hoping for. I had a special idea in mind on how to remix this, so I just did. I went really ‘Dance Mania’ style on this and it just took me 2-3 hours.
10. Maurice ‘This Is Acid’
More an edit than a remix of this great house classic from Chicago’s legendary TRAX records.
11. Para One ‘Dudun-Dun’
The original is already the bomb but I tried to go to the next level. One of my earlier remixes and the beginning of a great friendship as well.
12. Apparat ‘Arcadia’
I couldn’t believe that Apparat was a fan of my music! So I was quite pleased to do this remix and it turned out being a 13 minute rework. It was that long because I wasn’t 100% satisfied with the first idea. I added another, super quiet melancholic part and because that wasn’t satisfying me either, I’ve added a super hard but classic house-techno part at the end. Those 3 parts together made finally sense to me. Listening back today I still feel the same about the first part, so here you find a never released version of the 2nd & 3rd part together. Enjoy.
…THX FOR LISTENING!
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‘Boys Noize – Remixes (2004-2011)’ is due to be released on December 5th.
