Alex Ridha AKA one of the biggest electro artists in the world, AKA Boys Noize, the one-man power house, who needs little introduction since bursting onto the scene in 2004, delivers a fine selection of simmering, sometimes thick electro on his new artist album aptly titled Power.

Big demands were always going to be expected from this album, especially after the success of his debut album Oi Oi Oi in 2007, but such a high level of anticipation inevitably was going to make it difficult for a follow up or surpass its success. Space galactic sounding electro with traces of Berlin electonica stamped all over it and a much heavier tech flavour, Boys Noize teases us as he plays with more minimal elements while still attempting to get fists shaking.

However, Power is not consistent and the album name proves a little ironic. While there are great examples of hard hitting electro, these are fleeting, but thankfully they are standouts as a result of a touches of clever melody, which thankfully prevents these tracks from slipping into fidget house. While establishing his own sound, that has put Ridha amongst peers such as Justice and Erol Alkon, and with a bag of hugely successful remixes under his belt, it’s refreshing to see he has refused the temptation to sell out and feature too many vocals, which must have been tempting after the success of his first album. Thankfully for us, Power remains an electro tech album, which stays close to Ridha’s original roots, without much deviation, although it has a much mellower sound.

Easing us into things, Ridha starts off easy on the first track Gax, but by the second track, any politeness is out the window, and we are straight in the thick of things, with that typical, thick, grindy electro with a very galactic sound to it, and with a space invader vocal, it appears a good warm up of things to come. Starter, has a Waters of Nazareth feel to it, with its grindy, cut and paste electro feel and despite sounding like a Justice demo, even this early on the album, it remains a highlight.

Surprisingly, though things plateau here, with what almost sounds like a few filler tracks, which are slightly disappointing. This might be due to the fact that things kick off pretty big quite early, or perhaps Ridha is trying to prevent making listening to the album too taxing or repetitive, or just for production variation, but thankfully it is this variety that keeps things challenging for the audience. From here, Transmission has a minimal tech feel to it, which is refreshing, while Nerve has an industrial experimentation flirtation experience taking place, relatively new territory for Ridha.

While Ridha flirts between harder and lighter elements of electro over the next few tracks, it’s hard to know what direction things are heading in. With some tracks sounding reminiscent of each other, the direction finally solidifies towards the latter end of the album. Drummer has a good melody to it, which gets things back on track momentarily with a dancey rhythm to it, but alone, it isn’t enough to save this ship. While Street Light has a 90s edge vs Daft Punk feel to it, again it feels like we have another potential hit which fails to take off.

By the end of Power, there is some confusion. While definitely a Boys Noize album, with strong elements of Oi Oi Oi resonating, Power has a softer sound to it. While this is not necessarily a problem, the confusing thing however is that there are critical points on the album, where things sound like they are about to take off but really fail too, and I think it’s due to the order of the track listing. With the opening tunes bursting out quickly and very loudly in typical Ridha style, we come to expect this throughout the album, or at least a little more frequently, however when it doesn’t happen we’re left wondering, what just happened? Did it all go wrong, or was it meant to be like this? It leaves the remaining tracks sounding very flat, and as if they are demos for what potentially could have been amazing, while remains consistency is all over the place.

In defense of Ridha, however, it was always going to be difficult to back up Oi Oi Oi, and he was always going to face criticism, no matter how he approached the follow up. If he remained to much the same, he’d be lazy, if he sold out commercially, he’d be a cheat and safe and by changing sound, the risk was it could all fail. However, by mixing it up and giving us a few different elements and while changing the sound somewhat, he has to some extent kept things interesting, and despite being flat in parts, if this album was to stand alone, it would probably be appreciated in a different light all together.

While I found Power to be a little confusing, repetitive and flat overall, it would not discourage me from buying a new Boys Noize album in the future, While not a strong as Oi Oi Oi, I’m sure this wont be the last we hear from Ridha, and with that, I’m sure his best is yet to come. Ridha is just warming up, so it will be interesting too see what happens next.

Tracklisting for Boys Noize’ Power...

01. Gax
02. Kontact Me
03. Starter
04. Jeffer
05. Transmission
06. Nerve
07. Trooper
08. Sweet Light
09. Drummer
10. Rozz Box
11. Nott
12. Heart Attack

Catch Boys Noize on tour with Future Music Festival:

Fri 1st Jan – Pyramid Rock Festival, Victoria
Sat 9th Jan – Soundscape Festival, Hobart
Sat 27th Feb – Future Music Festival, Brisbane
Sun 28th Feb – Future Music Festival, Perth
Sat 6th March – Future Music Festival, Sydney
Sun March 7th – Future Music Festival, Melbourne
Mon March 8th – Future Music Festival, Adelaide