New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Australian digital music composer HRTZ has released her premier dance single, "Accidentally Acid." The prominent track features original vocals by Canadian DJ Kwe. It has been proudly published as an independent release outside the influence of the corporate music industry. Pulsing with groove, subtly unstoppable, and so easy to fall into that fans of all genres can agree on it, "Accidentally Acid" is a traditional house music anthem with a modern edge that suggests HRTZ will be at the top of her game for years to come.
HRTZ cites music influences from the UK house-music scene, such as Maya Jane Coles and Carl Cox, as well as Russian DJ Nina Kraviz. Listeners familiar with the works of these digital composers will recognize common traits between them: tight, spacious beats, minimal instrumentation, and slow builds that rely on tasteful texturing rather than "are you all ready for this"-style crescendos. Like the music of HRTZ, herself, this is electronic music that has much more to offer than your kid brother's MacBook masterpiece.
The difference may lie in HRTZ's musical roots, which differ greatly from that of many digital composers today.
"I was originally a singer-songwriter," HRTZ writes. "I wrote blues and folk songs and played around the open mic nights in Melbourne. I also played an open mic night in Canada while on holiday and in San Francisco, too. It was fun to experience a different audience from the Australian one."
Another key quality her new single boasts is that of an underlying complexity. Its patient, classy minimalism allows for a tacit communication between the music and the music fan. It isn't blaring, isn't gaudy, isn't obnoxious. This electronic music doesn't yell - it speaks.
"'Accidentally Acid' is about letting go of the daily grind and realising it's not about the gadgets and the quick sugar rushes that we experience in life," writes HRTZ. "It's about something much deeper than that. It's personal to every listener."
Maybe that's why her single has collected 6,000 plays in the few weeks it's been available for listening - just on her official SoundCloud page alone - and this with precious little hype but word of mouth.
HRTZ (Toyah Hoetzel) is a Melbourne-based house-music producer and DJ affiliated with Beyond The Beat UK & AU. She grew up getting into gay clubs underage in the industrial areas of Melbourne's grimy Collingwood district. She found her feet amongst the lovers of vocal house where sweaty, bass-driven remixes of divas such as Whitney
Houston were a regular vice for many.
Originally a classically trained guitarist and then a singer-songwriter, HRTZ loves and focuses on melodic shifts in tension in her sets, and by doing so commands control of the dance floor. Inspired by the electro movement in Melbourne's more obscure clubs like Honky Tonks, Eurotrash Pop Shop and The Croft
Institute in the early 2000s, HRTZ was exposed to such legends as Ajax, John Course and Carl Cox, where her love of vocal, electro and house were entrenched.
HRTZ returned to her musical roots on a digital platform in 2013 pioneering TopDeckDJs and entered as a newcomer into Melbourne's club scene with a variety of sounds from house, tech-house, trap, moombahton and bass-heavy EDM sets. She now produces what she loves, indie dance and deep-house tunes, and is gaining momentum as a DJ, producer, and digital-sample artist.
"Accidentally Acid" by HRTZ and feat. DJ Kwe is available online worldwide beginning Aug. 31, 2015. Get in early, house-music fans.