Few DJs have navigated the gulf between the German techno scene of the 2000s and the global main-stage EDM of the 2010s (and onward) quite like Boys Noize. Born Alex Ridha in 1982, the Hamburg native moved to Berlin at 21 and began putting out hard-hitting electro-house anthems on labels like DJ Hell’s International DeeJay Gigolo Records and Tiga’s Turbo. He founded his own Boysnoize Records in 2005, establishing a uniquely German take on the decade’s blog-house sound by uniting hip-hop swagger and rave hedonism with techno’s underground intensity. He remixed acts like Depeche Mode and Justice and began headlining increasingly huge festival stages, and then came 2012’s Dog Blood, a collaboration with Skrillex that found both artists breaking down the walls between genres. Boys Noize continued to test the division between club savvy and pop smarts on 2021’s +/-, tapping guests like Rico Nasty and Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears on an album encompassing freestyle, EBM, and other timeless dance-music styles.