Hunz
Encyclopedia
Hunz is an electronic
pop
music group from Brisbane
, Australia
. The name Hunz can refer to either the group or its composer, keyboardist and vocalist, Hans van Vliet.
The group was formed in 2005 by Johannes (Hans) van Vliet (born 15 December 1976), who is better known by his pen-name Hunz. Hunz was raised in Brisbane, Australia and began working on tracker music in his early teens using Protracker
, Fast Tracker
2, and Jeskola Buzz
. Hunz is noted for being one of the first trackers to make the unconventional move of adding vocals to his compositions. He was also affiliated with the tracking groups Heretics, Analogue, Five Musicians
(FM) and Hellven.
From 1999-2002, Hunz toured the United States as vocalist for the hard music band Beanbag
, who released two albums, Free Signal (2000) and Welladjusted (2001), on American label Inpop Records following their Australian independent debut, Guttersnipe (1998). The group disbanded in 2002 after a van accident that left Hunz hospitalized for three days with lung damage.
Hunz returned to the music community in 2005 with When Victims Fight, which was his first release under the Hunz moniker. The album was released on Apegenine Recordings
on 20 June 2008 and was accompanied by a promotional video that displayed Hunz's motion design and visual art. When Victims Fight was critically acclaimed by Cyclic Defrost, Tokafi and Brisbane street press Time Off.
In February 2009, Hunz entered the RPM Challenge
, wherein musicians across the world attempt to write and record an album within a month. Second album Thoughts That Move was Hunz's RPM Challenge submission, which was independently released in May 2009 as a free high-quality download on Bandcamp
. Hunz also included the Renoise
(.XRNS) source files, which allows Renoise users to see how each of the album's ten tracks were arranged. The track Soon, Soon was included with the release of digital audio software application Renoise version 2.1. Thoughts That Move received positive reviews on Australian music site FasterLouder.com.au, Brisbane music blog Before Hollywood and in Brisbane street press Rave Magazine.
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
music group from Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The name Hunz can refer to either the group or its composer, keyboardist and vocalist, Hans van Vliet.
The group was formed in 2005 by Johannes (Hans) van Vliet (born 15 December 1976), who is better known by his pen-name Hunz. Hunz was raised in Brisbane, Australia and began working on tracker music in his early teens using Protracker
Protracker
ProTracker is a popular freeware tracker created by Lars Hamre, Anders Hamre, Sven Vahsen and Rune Johnsrud for the Amiga platform. It is amongst the programs that first allowed for widespread creation of music without studio equipment...
, Fast Tracker
Fast Tracker
FastTracker 2 is a tracker created by Fredrik "Mr. H" Huss and Magnus "Vogue" Högdahl, two members of the demogroup Triton which set about releasing their own tracker after breaking into the scene in 1992 and winning several demo competitions. The source code of FastTracker 2 is written in Pascal...
2, and Jeskola Buzz
Jeskola Buzz
Jeskola Buzz is a freeware modular software music studio environment designed to run on Microsoft Windows via Microsoft .NET. It is centered around a modular plugin-based machine view and a multiple pattern sequencer tracker .Buzz consists of a plugin architecture that allows the audio to be routed...
. Hunz is noted for being one of the first trackers to make the unconventional move of adding vocals to his compositions. He was also affiliated with the tracking groups Heretics, Analogue, Five Musicians
Five Musicians
Five Musicians was a demo group / netlabel with origins in the demoscene. It was active between the years 1995 and 2000. The idea of limiting the group to only five members caused the group to be very selective. As a result, they created a number of very high-quality releases, and became one of...
(FM) and Hellven.
From 1999-2002, Hunz toured the United States as vocalist for the hard music band Beanbag
Beanbag (band)
Beanbag was an Australian band that formed in 1995 and broke up in late 2002.The group comprised core members vocalist Hans Van Vliet, guitarist Michael Mullins, bassist Phil "Hirvy" Hirvela, and drummer Phil Usher. Steven Lewis-Driver assumed the bass position when Hirvy left the band in early 2002...
, who released two albums, Free Signal (2000) and Welladjusted (2001), on American label Inpop Records following their Australian independent debut, Guttersnipe (1998). The group disbanded in 2002 after a van accident that left Hunz hospitalized for three days with lung damage.
Hunz returned to the music community in 2005 with When Victims Fight, which was his first release under the Hunz moniker. The album was released on Apegenine Recordings
Apegenine recordings
Apegenine recordings is a Canadian independent record label. It was established as a subdivision in 2003 by Vincent Fugere and has released music by Montreal's most prominent electronic artist David Kristian, Emanuele Errante, Khonnor, Klaus Lunde , Julien Neto among others.The music it releases...
on 20 June 2008 and was accompanied by a promotional video that displayed Hunz's motion design and visual art. When Victims Fight was critically acclaimed by Cyclic Defrost, Tokafi and Brisbane street press Time Off.
In February 2009, Hunz entered the RPM Challenge
RPM Challenge
The RPM Challenge is a creative challenge offered yearly to musicians, similar to other time-based challenges such as NaNoWriMo ....
, wherein musicians across the world attempt to write and record an album within a month. Second album Thoughts That Move was Hunz's RPM Challenge submission, which was independently released in May 2009 as a free high-quality download on Bandcamp
Bandcamp
Bandcamp is an online music store, as well as a platform for artist promotion, that caters mainly for independent artists. Artists on Bandcamp have a customizable microsite with the albums they upload. All tracks can be played for free on the website and some artists offer free music downloads...
. Hunz also included the Renoise
Renoise
Renoise is a contemporary digital audio workstation based upon the heritage and development of tracker software. Its primary use is the composition of music using sound samples, soft synths, and effects plug-ins. It is also able to interface with MIDI and OSC equipment...
(.XRNS) source files, which allows Renoise users to see how each of the album's ten tracks were arranged. The track Soon, Soon was included with the release of digital audio software application Renoise version 2.1. Thoughts That Move received positive reviews on Australian music site FasterLouder.com.au, Brisbane music blog Before Hollywood and in Brisbane street press Rave Magazine.