Audiotricz: Biography, Discography and More | EDM Encyclopedia

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Introduction

Audiotricz is a Dutch electronic music duo consisting of producers and performers Kenneth Kroes and Leon Benschop. They originate from Nunspeet, a municipality located in the Veluwe region of the Netherlands. Active from 2013 to the present, the pair operates strictly within the hardstyle scene, delivering consistent studio output and live performances. Their longevity in the music industry spans over a decade, highlighting a sustained ability to adapt their sound to changing production trends while maintaining their core dual-member lineup.

The two musicians share production duties, focusing on synthesizer programming, percussion design, and vocal processing to create their tracks. Hailing from the Netherlands provides them with direct access to the infrastructure of the hardstyle industry, including specialized record labels, booking agencies, and event organizers. This local proximity dictates their workflow and allows them to integrate into the broader hardstyle event circuit, where they perform DJ sets at clubs and multi-day festivals. Their geographic origin places them directly within the cultural epicenter of the harder styles of dance music.

Throughout their career, Kroes and Benschop have developed a structured approach to releasing music. They transitioned from releasing individual tracks to compiling larger bodies of work, eventually producing full-length albums. This progression demonstrates a deliberate shift from single-track club releases to more comprehensive listening experiences. By operating as a duo, they combine their technical skills to handle the complex sound design required for hardstyle music, dividing tasks like melody creation, drum arrangement, and mix engineering to maximize their studio efficiency. Their collaborative dynamic requires precise synchronization during both the production phase and their live DJ performances.

Genre and Style

Audiotricz approaches the hardstyle genre with an emphasis on melodic progression and heavy sound design. Rather than relying solely on aggressive percussion, the duo integrates prominent synthesizer leads that carry the musical arrangement. Their style bridges the gap between mainstream accessibility and the harder edges of electronic dance music. They construct tracks using layered melodies, building tension through rising arpeggios and pitch bends before dropping into heavy, distorted kick drums typical of the hardstyle spectrum.

The hardstyle Sound

The duo frequently utilizes vocal elements as focal points in their arrangements. They process these vocals using pitch correction, reverb, and delay to sit clearly above dense instrumental mixes, using them to drive the emotional tone of the tracks. This vocal integration contrasts with the purely instrumental nature of many harder dance music subgenres. By combining harmonic chord progressions with driving tempos, they create a sound that prioritizes musicality alongside rhythmic impact, ensuring their tracks contain distinct lyrical hooks.

In terms of technical execution, Audiotricz focuses heavily on the mixing and mastering stages to achieve sonic clarity. hardstyle production requires strict frequency separation, especially between the low-end, distorted kick drums and the mid-range synthesizers. The duo achieves this by side-chaining their melodic elements to their kick drums, ensuring the percussion punches through the mix without clashing with the musical chords. They utilize equalization to carve out specific frequency bands for each instrument, resulting in a polished, punchy sound that translates well to large club sound systems.

Their production style also reflects a progressive approach to digital audio workstation arrangement. Instead of repetitive eight-bar loops, they structure songs with distinct verse, chorus, and bridge sections, applying changes in filter frequencies and energy levels to guide the listener through the track. This methodical structuring ensures that the synthesizer riffs evolve over time, maintaining listener engagement from the intro to the outro. Their focus on advanced chord structures separates their work from conventional, repetitive hard dance tracks, appealing to listeners who prioritize harmonic complexity alongside high-tempo percussion.

Key Releases

The discography of Audiotricz features a structured rollout of singles, extended plays, and full-length albums.

  • Singles:
  • Feel Good
  • Reborn
  • Infinite
  • Momentum

Discography Highlights

Singles: The duo began their recording career with a focus on standalone hardstyle tracks designed for immediate club deployment. In 2013, they released their debut singles: Feel Good and Reborn. These tracks established their presence on digital hardstyle platforms, introducing their signature blend of hard kicks and uplifting melodies. They continued this momentum into 2014 with two additional singles, Infinite and Momentum. These four tracks represent the foundational phase of their career, serving as their initial introduction to playlists and allowing them to build a touring schedule around recognizable solo tracks.

EPs: Alongside their early singles, the producers released their first extended play in 2013, titled Are Audiotricz E.P. This project grouped multiple tracks together, offering a broader sample of their early sound design. Years later, they returned to this format with the A New Dawn Extended EP (Chapter One) in 2020. This specific release expanded upon the themes of their corresponding album, providing extended mixes and additional club-focused material that complemented their larger body of work.

Albums: Audiotricz transitioned into full-length projects with their debut album, A New Dawn, released in 2020. This project required long-term planning and thematic consistency, compiling a comprehensive collection of tracks that showcased their refined production capabilities. In 2024, they released their sophomore studio album, Progressive Hardstyle. This latest project explicitly states their stylistic direction in its title, focusing on the evolving nature of their genre. By categorizing their work into these distinct formats, the duo has built a discography that documents their development.

Famous Tracks

Audiotricz emerged from Nunspeet, Netherlands as the hardstyle duo of Kenneth Kroes and Leon Benschop. Their first release, the Are Audiotricz E.P. in 2013, served as both introduction and statement of intent. That same year produced two additional singles: Feel Good and Reborn. Both tracks demonstrated the duo’s approach to hardstyle production, one that emphasizes melodic synth lines woven alongside the genre’s heavy kick drums and bass.

The year 2014 brought two more singles from the duo: Infinite and Momentum. These releases continued refining the Audiotricz sound, with production that favored atmospheric builds and structured EDM drops. The progression across these four singles in two years illustrates how quickly Kroes and Benschop developed their collaborative workflow and studio techniques.

In 2020, Audiotricz released their debut album A New Dawn, accompanied by the A New Dawn Extended EP (Chapter One). The album marked a shift from standalone singles to a comprehensive full-length project, collecting the duo’s refined production approach into an extended listening experience. After years of individual releases, this album format allowed Audiotricz to explore longer arcs and varied moods across multiple tracks, offering a broader view of their capabilities as producers. The simultaneous release of extended versions alongside the main album also indicated attention to different listening contexts, from casual playback to DJ sets.

Live Performances

As a Dutch hardstyle act, Audiotricz operates within one of electronic music’s most performance-driven scenes. The Netherlands hosts numerous hardstyle events and festivals throughout the year, providing regular opportunities for Kenneth Kroes and Leon Benschop to connect with audiences. Their catalog, spanning over a decade of releases, gives the duo flexibility in constructing sets that balance older material with newer productions.

Notable Shows

The duo’s second album, Progressive Hardstyle, arrived in 2024, offering fresh material for live contexts. The title signals a deliberate stylistic direction, suggesting expanded melodic elements and structural experimentation within the hardstyle framework. For live performances, this recent work allows Audiotricz to present current material alongside established favorites, creating sets that reference their full career arc.

Hardstyle performances prioritize energy and crowd engagement, with artists building sets around peaks and releases that correspond to the genre’s driving tempos. The Audiotricz discography suits this approach well: their tracks feature dramatic builds and impactful drops that translate effectively to large venue settings. The duo’s consistent emphasis on melody alongside harder elements provides natural contrast within a set, allowing for dynamic shifts between aggressive and more atmospheric passages. This balance between intensity and musicality gives Audiotricz options when programming sets for different environments, from intimate club nights to larger festival stages. Their experience performing as a duo also creates opportunities for stage presence that solo acts cannot replicate, with both members contributing to the visual and sonic presentation.

Why They Matter

Audiotricz represents a specific strand of Dutch hardstyle that prioritizes musicality alongside power. Kenneth Kroes and Leon Benschop have maintained their partnership for over a decade, demonstrating a collaborative longevity that speaks to a shared creative vision. In a genre where solo producers are common, their duo format allows for complementary skill sets and perspectives in both production and performance.

Impact on hardstyle

The pair’s origin in Nunspeet places them within the broader Dutch electronic music ecosystem, a country where hardstyle has developed its own infrastructure of events, labels, and dedicated media. Artists operating within this system benefit from direct access to knowledgeable audiences and established performance circuits. For Audiotricz, this environment has provided consistent opportunities to develop and test their sound with engaged listeners who understand the genre’s conventions and appreciate subtle variations within it.

Over more than a decade of activity, Kroes and Benschop have demonstrated a willingness to evolve their production approach while remaining within the hardstyle genre. Their move from early singles to full album projects indicates an ambition to create longer-form work, not just individual tracks for DJ sets. This commitment to album-length statements suggests artists who view their output as more than standalone singles, approaching their catalog with attention to narrative and flow across multiple tracks. In a genre often focused on individual tracks, this album-oriented mindset distinguishes Audiotricz from peers who prioritize single releases over cohesive projects. Their continued activity into 2024 confirms an ongoing commitment to the duo, suggesting that Kroes and Benschop see Audiotricz as a lasting creative partnership rather than a temporary project.

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