Review
Genre and Mood
Boys Noize made Starwin as the summer track of Go Hard: acid house with a disco heart and a house frame, playful and carefree, the opposite of the heavy-hitting electro he was known for.
Song Summary
Introducing the EP, Alexander Ridha described its tracks one by one, and this was “one 909 Acid/Disco-House track for the summer vibes”. EARMILK, which noted that Starwin had been teased weeks before release, called it a departure from his heavy-hitting electro, sampling happy disco melodies with acid blips in the style of 1990s Daft Punk. Purebreak heard sun, sea and hot sand in it, with enough psychedelic touches for the dance floor, and noted that some listeners recognised the hand of DJ Falcon or of Thomas Bangalter’s solo records.
Musical Breakdown
No source describes Starwin section by section; what they describe is a track that hardly needs sections.
Main Section
The track is its loops. Complex wrote that it was not much more than those loops, played over and over and over, a huge mixture of house, acid and disco, and that this was exactly the appeal.
Music Video
The video, directed by Mike Bishop, was shot on Venice Beach in Los Angeles with dancers on roller skates and girls with hula hoops, according to Purebreak. It uses a cut of about three and a half minutes; the EP version here runs four.
Concepts in Focus
sampling gives Starwin its warmth: the happy disco melodies EARMILK heard come from records, not from a synth preset, and bring their summer with them. The acid half of the recipe is electronic, the squelching blips of house’s acid tradition, set on the 909 drum machine Ridha named himself.
The loop does the rest. Instead of verses and a drop, a few sampled and programmed phrases repeat, and the pleasure is in the repetition itself. That is also why EARMILK reached for 1990s Daft Punk; compare Daft Punk – Around the World.
The music video sells the mood rather than a story: skates, hula hoops and Californian sun, released in early July 2013 as the summer began.
Artistic Context
Boys Noize is Alexander Ridha, a German-Iraqi producer and DJ born in Hamburg in 1982, who founded Boysnoize Records in 2005 and formed Dog Blood with Skrillex in 2012. Go Hard came out digitally on 24 June 2013 on Boysnoize Records (BNR110), five tracks ranging from rave and techno to acid trap and disco-house, ahead of a world tour.
Impact and Reception
Starwin was the EP’s calling card, released first and given its video. In 2014 the Go Hard Remixes added Starwin (Bounce Version), which Complex found kept the undeniable loops and added a more suitable pair of drums. Put it on when the sun is out.
