In the heart of Auckland, New Zealand, surrounded by nature’s stillness and the echo of bass-heavy memories, a new force in festival music is rising, DeHusslar Music. Though the name may be new to many, the story behind it is anything but ordinary. A year ago, in April 2024, DeHusslar Music was just another face in the crowd, soaking up the electrifying pulse of New Zealand’s renowned festival scene. But those nights under open skies, those strobe-lit hours at 3am dancing with strangers and sound, were more than just fleeting moments, they were the foundation of something greater. Compelled by the immersive magic of those communal celebrations, DeHusslar Music began an intensely personal journey into music production. With no prior training but an unshakable passion, they built a home studio by a serene lakeside, a place where introspection meets creativity. Guided by the spirit of self-discovery, they taught themselves the language of music through sleepless nights and countless experiments.
From learning to wire an Akai MPK Mini 3 into a DAW, to digging through thousands of samples, every beat they made was a step closer to translating emotion into sound. The musical DNA of DeHusslar Music is steeped in local pride. Influences like Shapeshifter, Lee Mvtthews, Trinity Roots, and Salmonella Dub ripple through their sonic approach, blending electronic intensity with soulful ambiance. But the inspiration stretches far beyond New Zealand. While the artist modestly claims there are “too many to mention” on the international front, it’s clear that the global festival experience has shaped their artistic identity. DeHusslar Music doesn’t just make tracks, they build immersive worlds designed to resonate in the ears, hearts, and memories of anyone who’s ever lost themselves to the rhythm of a live set. For DeHusslar Music, this isn’t just a hobby, it’s a calling. DeHusslar Music is Festival Music, they say, boldly proclaiming their purpose. With a plan to release new music every month and take their sound to the festival stages of New Zealand next summer, DeHusslar Music is a name that won’t just echo through speakers, it will echo through time.
On May 9th, 2025, DeHusslar Music unveiled their debut single, Nga Mihi, a deeply personal and electrifying tribute to the very world that inspired their musical birth: the festival scene. The title, which means Thank you in Te Reo Māori, is a philosophy. Crafted beside the tranquil waters of a lakeside home studio and infused with the midnight energy of countless festival nights, Nga Mihi captures the raw pulse of gratitude, freedom, and unity that defines New Zealand’s vibrant music culture. This isn’t just a song, it’s a celebration. A sonic explosion of bass, emotion, and spirit designed not only for dancing, but for remembering. Nga Mihi stands as the lead single from DeHusslar Music’s latest EP PREZ\@MINEZ, and with it, the artist doesn’t simply enter the scene, they erupt onto it. A track made for the festival mainstage yet crafted in solitude, Nga Mihi is both an anthem and a meditation, reminding us why we gather, why we dance, and why we say thank you.
From the first seconds of Nga Mihi, there’s an immediate sense that something larger than sound is about to unfold, a moment of spiritual ignition framed within electronic pulsework. What begins as an ambient swell, hazy with atmospheric pads and subtly detuned synths, soon morphs into a deeply visceral sonic release. This is not a track made for idle listening. It doesn’t beg attention, it demands it. The opening evokes the image of a dawn-lit lake, mirroring the introspective calm of DeHusslar Music’s* lakeside recording environment. And just as you begin to feel that gentle tranquility, the floor beneath you drops out. Without warning, you’re plunged into a bass-laden free fall, a vortex of distorted drops, pitch-shifted layers, and rhythmic fragmentation. It’s here that Nga Mihi makes its most resounding statement: you’re not just listening to a track; you’re being transported through a sonic ritual of gratitude.
Musically, the song thrives on tension and release. The juxtaposition between serenity and chaos is deliberate, carefully engineered. DeHusslar Music laces the arrangement with rhythmic unpredictability, merging trap snares, dubstep growls, and drum & bass percussive flurries. Yet none of it feels stitched together. The transitions are smooth, often deceptive, pulling the listener into new realms before they even notice the previous has passed. You can hear echoes of crowd roars, faint vocal inflections, and almost human-like beatbox textures buried in the mix, elements that never dominate but deeply enrich. These sonic clues offer a layered narrative: a nod to festival grounds, late-night dancing in fields, and those quiet moments of inner reflection just before the sun comes up.
Vocally, Nga Mihi does something quite rare, it communicates without using words. There’s no traditional lead vocal performance here, and yet the song speaks volumes. Through processed vocal chops, breaths, hums, and beatboxed riffs, DeHusslar crafts an emotionally resonant vocal presence. It is an invitation, not an instruction. The absence of a lyrical roadmap forces the listener to project their own meaning, and in doing so, the track becomes deeply personal. You begin to feel what it wants to say, even if you can’t articulate it. The Maori phrase Nga Mihi, meaning thank you is embodied through production choices rather than spoken. It’s reverence in resonance, not rhetoric.
The instrumentation plays an equally powerful role in shaping this emotional landscape. Synths ripple like water under pressure; sub-bass grumbles like tectonic plates shifting below the surface. There are moments where the beat recedes entirely, leaving only ambient reverb to float, then surges back with a vengeance in glitched-out chaos. DeHusslar uses his Akai MPK Mini not just as a tool, but as an extension of emotional intent, producing something that feels both feral and meditative. Every sound, from the thumping low-end to the shrill high-register distortions, is calculated yet raw. This duality is what gives Nga Mihi its power: it sounds like a track forged in nature, refined in chaos, and performed at the peak of spiritual catharsis. What this blend of vocal elements and instrumentation creates is a mood that oscillates between gratitude and release, a feeling of being both humbled and electrified.
At times, it feels as though the track is breathing alongside you, exhaling when the pressure breaks, inhaling during buildup. The fusion is seamless: the beat doesn’t sit on the vocal textures, it grows from them. That fusion allows the listener to exist inside the track, to move with it, not just to it. There’s an unmistakable pulse to the song, and it’s not mechanical. It feels organic, as if each sound has been carved from an experience rather than generated in code. From the moment Nga Mihi begins, I was struck not only by its raw power, but also by its grace. It’s rare to find electronic music that invites vulnerability without softening its punch. This track does both. It pushed me into a space of sensory overflow, my head nodding involuntarily, my heart syncing to its pulse.
Nga Mihi is a Wordless Festival Anthem Forged in Gratitude and Bass
The textures were so immersive, the transitions so clean, I almost forgot I was analyzing it at all. It pulled me into a place of honest, instinctive reaction. And that’s where its genius lies: in how it performs not only as a high-octane electronic track, but also as an emotional statement, a love letter to the communities, mentors, and roots that shaped its creator. The production quality is exceptionally high, no frequency is wasted, no moment feels misplaced. In the end, Nga Mihi feels like a triumph of self-expression, a sonic explosion of thankfulness that pulses with both personal depth and communal energy. It is unashamedly loud, unrelentingly immersive, yet it carries a spiritual calm that lingers long after it ends. DeHusslar Music, with this single, has delivered a debut that feels like a culmination, a mature, festival-ready track that says everything it needs to without a single lyric. It is gratitude, encoded in bass and breath.
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