I thought I would mention the work of Markus Ravik here. He has become a fan of the music after doing photos here and there. Hope people enjoy his work as much as I have. Thank you Markus

Completely lost for words ver this review. Thank you Tian and FasterLouder.

Faster Louder Review

In a mere twenty-eight days, Hunz has managed to do what some bands take months or even years to accomplish, and which some only dream of. Created as part of the RPM Challenge, Thoughts That Move is a beautifully crafted collection of ten songs, which shows musicianship that far exceeds its short gestation period. The music is intricate and enigmatic, occupying that very small space where ambient, electronic, drum ‘n’ bass, and R&B overlap – a place where only a select superb few (Radiohead/Thom Yorke and Gotye spring to mind) have dared to venture.

The album opens with Hunz’s beautiful voice in It’s So Light, followed by Soon Soon, which employs one of the catchiest electronic drum beats since Radiohead’s Idioteque. Upbeat, R&B-infused songs, The Messenger and You Said Hello have such groovy beats and pop-tastic melodies that they are sure to make you want to bop along. These are contrasted with slower tracks like Car In The Meadow and Switch Off which have soaring vocals and Sigur-Ros-style ambience. Overall, the album is entirely cohesive (owing to its short production span) and takes the listener on a wonderful journey of catchy beats, sublime vocals and cascades of electronic noise and loops. God may have created the universe in seven days, but I think Hunz does a pretty good job with Thoughts That Move in twenty-eight.

You can read the whole review here : FasterLouder.com

Back in 1999 I released a song called “On Me”. So 10 years later sleeperspaceborn decides to remix it and inject some more life into the track. A big thank you to Ssb for doing 3 remix’s of my tracks. I don’t think I can thank you enough. Something about a good remix makes you feel very special ..

So if you’ve never heard the original here it is. I converted it over to .mp3 so you can listen to it and get a feel for what I was writing in 1999. I think my face is about to flush a bright red with embarrassment but I’m ok with that .. O_o

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Thank you 4zzz for the lovely review of my cd launch.  It’s really funny and hits me in all the right spots.  I will work hard on trying to start a rival fight with some ultra awesome band.  If you don’t know what I’m saying you must read it.  Thank you Josh.

4zzz Launch Review

The turn out is a little thin when Dot.AY takes the stage, but this doesn’t stop Alex from throwing himself around his collection of gameboys, samplers and particle accelerators. The Troub is far from the ideal venue for his electronic assault but he puts on a good show regardless.

The last time I saw Toy Balloon they were a two-piece, but there are four people on stage tonight. This means that somehow the toy balloons have doubled in number in just a year. If this rate of expansion continues then by the year 2020 Toy Balloon will have 4 069 members. The mind boggles at the implications of a Toy Balloon army filling the streets with a delicious blend of cowbell laced New Order style indie dance beats. I for one will welcome the dawn of this new vocoder and synth soaked utopian era.

Hunz takes the stage with his trademark humility that is strangely incongruent with the epic electronic wall of sound that he unleashes. Aided by an impressive rhythm section, the trio produce rich and luscious soundscapes that sound like the soundtrack to the greatest science fiction film never made. The setlist tonight is lifted from Hunz’s brand new album ‘Thoughts that Move’ which is all the more impressive for having been written and recorded in a mere 28 days, just enough time for most rock stars to go through rehab. Hunz has been causing more excitement in the local scene than Justin Timberlake in a high school girls locker room, and its no surprise that more than half the punters here tonight feature in some of Brisbane’s best bands.

The only real question here is why the troub isn’t packed to the rafters with the usual army of hipsters that swarm the gigs of local buzz bands. The only plausible explanation that this psuedomusojounro can come up with is that Hunz doesn’t wear enough ridiculous indie hipster outfits that seem to make the punters slaver. Perhaps Hunz should mimic the outfits from look at this fucking hipster.com. My other suggestion would be that he needs to start a rivalry with another local band to raise his profile. What about Yves Klein Blue? They’re pretty scrawny, and their jeans are tight enough to drastically restrict mobility in a street fight.

But I digress. Hunz delivers in spades tonight. Replicating the complex, layered compositions from ‘thoughts that move’ (available for free from his website) is no mean task. However, the trio translate the soundscapes surprisingly well into a live context, throbbing synth bass lines and precise but powerful drumming form a hypnotic background to Hunz’s impressive vocals and synth symphonies.

Nine thumbs up.

By Josh Donellan

You can read the full review here : 4zzz review

Dot.Ay did a wonderful pixel mash up of my song “you said hello”. He didn’t know it but I’ve been working on doing the theme tune from Dinosaucers but the guys from the band think it’s lame. Who’s lame now? huh? huh??

Sleeperspaceborn has done another wonderful remix of one of my tunes. Such a wonderful talent and I feel honored that we would consider my work. I love how this song plays out and it has a lot of depth and variety to it all. I’m such a sucker for around 4:59 onwards .. hehe. Thank you so much Sleeperspaceborn.

As you all know I really wanted to make sure everything was done in renoise for the album “thoughts that move”. I’ve been in love with tracking ever since I had my faithful Amiga and when I played with renoise I knew it was everything I hoped a tracker would become. During the whole process I talked with the renoise dev team to see if they could help host my .xnrs files to which they said they will but I never thought they might include a track in their program for all to hear when they purchase it. So a big Thank you so much renoise dev.

Also they have 3 of my tracks playing from their main page so check that out here and click on the player on the right.

This week will see some reviews of the show hit around the place. Plus some cd reviews as well. It is always such a nervous time because you hope people understand how you communicate your emotions across. If this review is anything to go by then I think I am being understood. Thank you so much, very “wow”.

Faster Louder Review

. . . . Hunz are, quite simply, amazing. Not only did this band create a sublime album in the space of a month, but they also have the live show to back it up. From the moment Hans van Vliet sings his first note, the audience are completely enchanted. Tonight the band launches their new album, Thoughts That Move, which rivals Gotye’s Like Drawing Blood in my books. (A big claim, I know. You can download it for free from the band’s website and decide for yourself.) Vliet’s laptop combines with careful bass and drums to produce an ambient sonic landscape, over which his luscious vocals soar.

While the band plays a mix of songs from the old and new albums, it is new songs like Soon Soon, with its repetitive drum beat and You Said Hello with its catchy melody that really stand out. From the previous album, the groovy Beg is clearly a favourite, as is the heartbreakingly delicate Draw the Line. The band finishes with the haunting Switch Off, leaving the audience spellbound. I don’t think there is a single person in the room who isn’t in awe of Hunz by the end of the set and I feel privileged to have been one of the first to see these beautiful songs performed live.

You can read the whole review here : FasterLouder.com

Here are some post that happened around the same time I launch the cd and got lost in the noise T_T. Thank you so much to the reviewers and random fans that just write up about me. I continue to be humbled by everyone’s passion for the music. Thanks.
 

The Quiet Revolution – Mmd

Yet another little trip up to Brisbane over the weekend saw us catch Hunz at The Globe on Friday night. A little tired from traveling all day we found sitting through the support bands a little bit of a challenge – the PA was just way too loud for my fragile ears and the bands were performing music that wasn’t really my sort of thing. It must have been late, possibly quarter to midnight that Hunz with his lappy, mics and keys, plus his bandmates Phil Evans on bass & Richie Young on drums, delivered a shortish set for over 30 minutes.

Playing only songs from the album When Victims Fight the band delivered enhanced versions of the songs with live intensity and genuine emotion, all which came across most enjoyable and beyond expectation. Going off my limited knowledge of their YouTube posted performances, it seems that the band is quite tight and Hunz has embellished the songs with live keyboard, extra melodies and effective ‘tape loop’ style self-sampling of his vocals to perform lovely weaving auto-choruses and builds. There were many moments when I though ‘this is all better than the CD, especially the strength in Hunz’s voice’. It was a slight shame there were only 50+ odd people there to see all this – but I’m reminded of a time I saw Augie March playing beautiful music to a small and totally unresponsive Bistro Audience up at UNE in 2000 before they got very big on Triple J. Somehow, and I know it’s a cliche, I feel it’s the same for Hunz: that wide and appropriately deserving attention will befall this music one way or another. Good gigs leave you with this feeling. There are all too many acts out there that suffer from having too much style and not enough substance – but if you ever catch these guys play live you’ll see that there’s no such issue here. The music left us feeling both entertained as well as inspired.

What a motivator to keep on with my own music.

We met up with him after the set to have a quick chinwag. He told me that the Renoise XRNS files for the new album Thoughts That Move have been released, which you can read more about here. Oh yeah, and of course that means the album has gone fully public and the band will be performing the new songs at future gig dates (lucky for Brisbanites). As stated before, I’m excited for him and think that it’s a good sign of what is yet to emerge.

Read the whole thing here http://m.thequietrevolution.net/mmd/2009/05/25/hunzspirational/

Frodo’s Ghost

When I found that the electronic music at the end of Guttersnipe and Freesignal was done by their vocalist I endeavored to find out more. It took a while, but eventually I stumble across a web page that Hunz had set up with a bunch of songs : Broken Wings, Kemical, The Flame, Your Still Here, Face I Paint and a few more. That was all I had until, I don’t know how but I found out he had a webpage for a current project.

Further investigation and a few free downloads and I was hooked. So I waited a little because I wanted to get it digitally, but after holding out as long as I could, I figured I’d enjoy a real copy. (side: you can now purchase it online here).

Work was boring when I arrived, but finding the CD meant I took a break and changed the scenery. Down stairs to the lounge, put the CD into an impressive speaker system, then sit back and enjoy the first listen.

I love this part of music. Everything is foreign. Things change expectantly. Vocals appear through broken shards as the beats and bass push air from speakers. I hum, like I know where everything is heading, and stop because it is nothing like I thought. Its surprising and entertaining, and the music is fresh, like a cool breeze on a summers day.

When Victims Fight is like that, a fresh breeze – but more-so in the I’m in a dark room and I need some fresh air, kind of way. The melodys wind around the grubby beats intertwining in an elaborate and endearing way. The album has a way to set a mood and follow it through, the dissonance of the music never seems to resolve

The electronic sounds flare and click while the drums set an uneven beat in the verses. They seem to falter and stumble and it creates an upsetting mood. But when it falls into the chorus it all falls into place, driving beats combine with the atmospheric vocals to really capture the mind.

And on the vocals, I do specifically like the way Hunz uses his voice like an instrument – like the start of the track ‘Hearts On Fire’ – eerie and beautiful – it adds wonderful dimension to the overall sound, and it is something that I really enjoy too.

One reason why I was happy to buy the album is the artwork. Fantastic. I do love the real world objects like CD covers, for some reason getting the album online doesn’t cover that aspect of a purchase. Although it was just a cover, no slip, so it was limited, and a digital purchase would have done. But hey, I have a real copy, which is great.

Overall, I found When Victims Fight to be a CD that fits right when I need music to be right now. It is fresh, and creative. It is moving and captivating. I enjoy this CD and am looking forward to what is to come.

You can read the whole thing at http://frodosghost.com/2009/05/22/hunz-when-victims-fight/

Just a little note to mention that ‘You said hello’ has been played on home & hosed on Triple J. You can see the play list here. If you felt like requesting the tune please do just make sure you don’t spam them, which would be so appreciated it.
 

Short and sweet post.