If the anticipatory tension around Boys Noize’s forthcoming 7LLVSION LP is already wound tight, cables will start snapping when “Nächstenliebe” (featuring Brutalismus 3000) drops today, October 29th. Both Boys Noize and Brutalismus 3000 are possessed by the raucous, punk spirit of Berlin’s underworld – hot and brash, not cold and sterile. “Nächstenliebe” is their industrial séance, a poltergeist that throws bodies around rooms.
“Nächstenliebe” launches with an ominous, step-sequenced bassline in the tradition of EBM pioneers DAF, cited by Boys Noize and his guests as an essential influence. Ancestor worship makes powerful magick, and Brutalismus 3000’s Victoria Vassiliki Daldas pays tribute to the late DAF singer with her Dadaist, Deutsch shouts, filling the pockets of a sparse, half-time beat. Pulse quickens with layered oscillators, confirmation of a looming climax. Stomach flutters are sidechained to gut-punch kicks; with each percussive accent, a call to the pit.
The doom-stomp returns after the first breakdown, stalked by threatening whispers until it collapses again with haunting pads and warbling Sprechgesang. There’s dissociation, then frenzy, as the snare roll accelerates the drop into total madness. The 4×4 pounds, the synths squelch, the mind evacuates, and the electronic body snaps to grid. In the last measures, dembow drums redline the engine with the whistle of an exploding teakettle. And then, unlike the dark, exhilarating Geist that Boys Noize and Brutalismus 3000 have summoned back into our world, “Nächstenliebe” ends.
Many have said Boys Noize is on a “generational run,” but this is inaccurate. Yes, there was a world tour with Nine Inch Nails last year, Boys Noize’s co-production of the TRON: Aressoundtrack, and the top-billed, critically exalted Coachella debut of the artists’ collaborative project Nine Inch Noize before the drop of their self-titled LP. That was in April. Then came a summer of non-stop Boys Noize performances in clubs and festival main stages on multiple continents. What’s next, however, complicates things.
Boys Noize will release 7LLVSION – his first solo album in five years – this fall, with the ZEP-fronted single “1+1+1” announcing its arrival and “Nächstenliebe” feat. Brutalismus 3000 offering a taste of what the 7LLVSION LP will bring, it’s clear that Boys Noize is on a multi-generational run. Then again, hasn’t he always?
