Background and composition
''Outer Edges'' was originally planned to release on 16 September, however a month prior to release, the album was leaked online, prompting Noisia to release the album earlier than expected. The trio later explained why they decided to release the album a month prior to its supposed release date, stating:Friday Night, while we were in the final minutes of setting up the stage for our first ever Outer Edges show, we received the news that our album had been leaked. We think you can imagine how bad we felt at that moment. We realise it’s 2016, and things like these happen all the time. Still, it’s quite a setback. All the plans we’ve made have to be scrapped and replaced by something less ideal, because we have to react to this unfortunate situation. Even though we are unhappy about this leak, we’re still really happy with the music. We really hope you will enjoy it as much as we’ve enjoyed making it.Outer Edges officially released on 5 August 2016, being the first album by Noisia in 6 years. The album was released alongside a European tour of the same name. When officially announcing the album, Noisia stated:
It’s called Outer Edges because it’s us exploring the outer edges of what Noisia, the three of us together, is. It's about the idea that all the songs are little islands that we take to their individual edge... They’re all like expeditions to far sides. That doesn’t mean that it’s everything; it’s just that every song, if it goes in a certain direction, we’ve taken it all the way there. There are no real concessions – we haven’t been super DJ-friendly or radio-friendly at all. We’ve done no collaborations and hardly any vocals on the album.
Reception and release
Fan Fiction of NEST HQ stated "''Outer Edges'' may not be a perfect album — I think consolidating some of its more redundant or wandering midsection could’ve helped make the overall piece a bit more digestible — but its consistency in futuristic concepts, its ability to transport you to different worlds, and its bar-raising production and execution make it one of the best releases of the year so far". Dan Gassis of Disposable Media compared Outer Edges to Noisia's previous album, ''Accolades
''Outer Edges'' received Best Album, Best Video for the single ''Mantra'' and awarded Noisia with Best Producer for the 8th annual Drum&BassArena Awards.Outer Edges (Remixes)
On 7 April 2017, a remix album of Outer Edges was released by Vision Recordings. The remix album featured 18 remixes from various artists, including remixes from electronic producersWhen we made the original we went as far as we could within our own confines; exploring and stretching the outer edges. With this remix package we asked a lot of different artists to take that material beyond our edges, into their respective domains. We are really happy that they managed to take our music into completely different dimensions, with such exciting results!Peter Rubinstein of Your EDM praised the remix album, stating "Mat Zo, Dyro, Camo & Krooked, Tsuruda, Moody Good, Bassnectar and more lent their contributions to the list, culminating in a listening experience that truly pushes the boundaries of the original’s impact and potential". Nathan Beer of Nest HQ generally liked Ivy Lab's remix of ''Tentacles'', stating "It’s one of those tunes you just have to skank to. Ivy Lab and their signature "never enough atomic weight and experimentation" approach to music work incredibly well on ''Tentacles''". Sagar Deshmukh of The Music Essentials praised Camo & Krooked's remix of ''The Entangled'', stating "The duo took one of the most remarkable tunes from the album ''The Entangled'' – Camo & Krooked stretched out the space and add their own harrowed textures and tones in the most minimal, mysterious and deepest ways". On 16 October 2016, prior to the release of Outer Edges (Remixes), Canadian electronic artist Joel Zimmerman, better known as his stage name deadmau5, was shown to be remixing Noisia's song ''Collider'' in a live production session, confirming that it would be an official remix for Noisia in the livestream chat, however the remix did not appear on the remix album.
Outer Edges (Noisia Remixes)
On 9 June 2017, a remix extended play of Outer Edges was released by Vision Recordings. The remix extended play featured 5 ''Outer Edges'' remixes by Noisia, including a remix of ''Voodoo,'' ''Surfaceless'' and a remix of the 2015 song ''Dead Limit'' by Noisia and New Zealand electronic duo, The Upbeats. When speaking about the extended play, Noisia stated:We recently put a new twist on some of our own songs for the ''Outer Edges'' audiovisual shows and decided to make them release worthy. We treated ''Dead Limit'', ''Diplodocus'', ''Tommy’s Theme'', and ''Surfaceless''. This ''Voodoo'' remix is the last one we finished, and that’s probably why this is currently the one we’re most hyped about ourselves.Nick Grindrod of By The Waves praised the extended play, stating "Crossing grimy halftime beats with Dubstep, these five songs will make your jaw drop multiple times with the sheer quality of production". Matthew Meadow commented on Noisia's remix of ''Dead Limit'', stating "Lots of syncopated synths and off-kilter drum beats merge to create a wholly unanticipated sonic event unlike much of anything being released today". Kanvar Kohli of Dancing Astronaut generally liked Noisia's remix of ''Surfaceless'', stating "While the original is more of an interlude than a complete song at less than two minutes long, the Dutch trio has re-worked it into a full-fledged track, while keeping the entire atmospheric vibe of the original track intact", further stating "''Surfaceless'' is a great auditory reflection of Noisia’s current musical experimentation, and steadily grows on the listener with time".
Track listing
Chart history
References
{{Authority control 2016 albums Noisia albums