Boys Noize, the pseudonym of German producer/label head Alexander Ridha, has delivered some of the best live P.A. performances of Winter Music Conference over the past few years.
This has been thanks to uptempo beats that still brought some melodic nuance and pop structure to everything.
Of course, a couple years back when it was the big electro-house thing to remix indie bands, that was a given.
So his late-afternoon/early-evening set at Ultra yesterday, for those expecting a little nuance or subtlety, was almost shocking. Ridha went fast, loud, and hard from the get-go, and continued as such unrelentingly. Unlike some of his electro-house peers, he hasn't chosen to go down the bass/dubstep path. Instead, his DJ sets have become even more hyperkinetic.
Maybe, like a truly good DJ, he was just playing to the crowd. The stage was packed with young kids in plastic bracelets who clearly wanted to jump... So it helped that he actually played a lightning-speed-BPM remix of House of Pain's "Jump Around."
For the sober, though, the effect was physically punishing. And with this on one side and Armin Van Buuren on another, Ultra was exhausting during those couple of sunset hours.
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