Neurofunk General

Good idea bumping this thread, got a few interesting discussions that i wasn't here to join in for.

You can't really call this funky


It's techy, just not funky. The moving basses that made neurofunk more distinguished are what make sound 'neuro', but there's no funk.
It's a huge banger, but in a techy way. The break is straight out techy.

This is what i'd consider funky.


It has shuffle's, drum rolls, a bit of swing, and percussion like shakers which give the idea i'ts been made with a funk break.

The thing is though, the guys saying it has to be funky to be nuerofunk, which isnt the case at all, and is why billains stuff is considered neurofunk, and why most of Noisia's stuff is considered nuerofunk even though heaps of their stuff is straight out techstep. Neurofunk is just a really shitty name for they style that it tries to cover.
The thing that made nuero different for tech has pretty much been the bass and mids.
That being said, neuro isnt always techy...

And thats why sub-genre's are too damn vague and flexible and can go fuck themselves.

Mania said:

The thing is though, the guys saying it has to be funky to be nuerofunk, which isnt the case at all, and is why billains stuff is considered neurofunk, and why most of Noisia's stuff is considered nuerofunk even though heaps of their stuff is straight out techstep. Neurofunk is just a really shitty name for they style that it tries to cover.
The thing that made nuero different for tech has pretty much been the bass and mids.
That being said, neuro isnt always techy...

And thats why sub-genre's are too damn vague and flexible and can go fuck themselves.

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i'd say funk is a pretty solid prerequisite for neurofunk, and i'd consider most of billains stuff to have funk, even if others can't hear it themselves...i just have better funk receptors, innit

billain is on another level, i didn't even like his music the first time i heard it, it grew on me...then it grew on me some more, then i listened to his back catalog on acid and it started to develop roots in my prefrontal cortex.

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also, noisia and phace's music is just bland as shit nowadays. anyone reckon they're gonna be able to bring it back?

their recent releases havn't been shit, just boring and sterile. they've both done pretty much jack shit that interests me since Split the Atom LP and From Deep Space LP

life feels empty without looking forward to a noisia or phace release.

Not sure how you can say Phace's releases recently have been bland... and I'm a believer that Neurofunk definitely doesn't need to have elements of funk in it (as the word sounds to have been made up by a 14 year old on UKF after his first joint). I think techstep is more like this but the boundaries between the two 'sub-genres' are getting smaller. I'd say people like Mefjus and Billain certainly aren't techstep. In all honesty though I don't really, it's just interesting to see how other people think about it.

armed said:

also, noisia and phace's music is just bland as shit nowadays. anyone reckon they're gonna be able to bring it back?

their recent releases havn't been shit, just boring and sterile. they've both done pretty much jack shit that interests me since Split the Atom LP and From Deep Space LP

life feels empty without looking forward to a noisia or phace release.

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IMO Phace was peaking around 2009/10.


Absurd / Vintage is probably my favourite single of his.

He is delving into more experimental styles, just like Misanthrop, just like Noisa, just like Teebee and Calyx, etc. It's a normal process, happens with most artists. Whether there music is becoming better or not is completely dependent on your music tastes. One thing is constant, and that is their level of production will always improve, and that one of the reasons i still love them, and why i enjoy their music. But thats just me.

Anyway, there's Mefjus, Billain, Emperor, Joe Ford, the Teddy Killerz boys, and heaps of other relatively-newcomers that will keep churning out fresh tracks and become the next gen leaders of the genre. Billain is incredible, and i love him as much as you do, but i guess i have a different concept of funk to yah, eh.

btw how can you not consider the Arrakis remix or The Liquid as tunes not worth looking forward to? Noisia are gunna spend more time with legion and nightwatch, but that doesnt mean they wont chuck out a banger once in a while.

Mania said:

He is delving into more experimental styles, just like Misanthrop, just like Noisa, just like Teebee and Calyx, etc. It's a normal process, happens with most artists. Whether there music is becoming better or not is completely dependent on your music tastes. One thing is constant, and that is their level of production will always improve, and that one of the reasons i still love them, and why i enjoy their music. But thats just me.

Anyway, there's Mefjus, Billain, Emperor, Joe Ford, the Teddy Killerz boys, and heaps of other relatively-newcomers that will keep churning out fresh tracks and become the next gen leaders of the genre. Billain is incredible, and i love him as much as you do, but i guess i have a different concept of funk to yah, eh.

btw how can you not consider the Arrakis remix or The Liquid as tunes not worth looking forward to? Noisia are gunna spend more time with legion and nightwatch, but that doesnt mean they wont chuck out a banger once in a while.

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favourite phace era for me is definitely when psycho came out.

didn't like 'the liquid', and yeah the 'arrakis' remix was kinda cool, but i wasn't wowed by it, and i should be wowed by a noisia tune.

I agree with the quoted premise that everything neurofunk is techy and not everything techy is neurofunk. And I think Lifted Music/Breed 12 Inches pretty much sums up what neurofunk is (also Eatbrain and Bad Taste are mainly about neurofunk, too).

Most of the tunes posted here I wouldn't call neurofunk at all, for me the key element in this is the use of silence, also groovy twisted basslines which move you inside out. Some of the older Noisia stuff would fit, their up-to-date production most certainly not, the same applies to Phace and Neosignal in general, altough they still keep some of the elements in their music every now and then, especially the drum work is unorganic and not funky at all. Most of the early 00's stuff posted here is just techstep, not neurofunk. As for Billain, he certainly made some tunes I'd consider neurofunk (Batbots for one for sure) and many of them are actually pretty soulful, it's just not that apparent. I'd definitely say his production has more funk/soul elements than Neosignal stuff nowadays.

Mostly neurofunk producers: Neonlight, Teddy Killerz, Jade, Encode, Telekinesis, Kinetik, Joe Ford, Spor

Fallen.GeMiNi said:

I agree with the quoted premise that everything neurofunk is techy and not everything techy is neurofunk. And I think Lifted Music/Breed 12 Inches pretty much sums up what neurofunk is (also Eatbrain and Bad Taste are mainly about neurofunk, too).

Most of the tunes posted here I wouldn't call neurofunk at all, for me the key element in this is the use of silence, also groovy twisted basslines which move you inside out. Some of the older Noisia stuff would fit, their up-to-date production most certainly not, the same applies to Phace and Neosignal in general, altough they still keep some of the elements in their music every now and then, especially the drum work is unorganic and not funky at all. Most of the early 00's stuff posted here is just techstep, not neurofunk. As for Billain, he certainly made some tunes I'd consider neurofunk (Batbots for one for sure) and many of them are actually pretty soulful, it's just not that apparent. I'd definitely say his production has more funk/soul elements than Neosignal stuff nowadays.

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i agree with you on pretty much all of that.

After reading this thread, I just don't know what is neurofunk anymore!

Also, on a sidenote: what differentiates neurofunk (or techstep) from darkstep?

See fuuuuzers post on page 3.

Bustre also has a unique somewhat brighter sound in this one track compared to most neuro,

Billain not funky? c'mon lets not get ridiculous

Maybe not his most technical tune but certainly one of the funkiest peices of neuro i've heard


Also love it when producers take the neurofunk sound and make it uplifting, like Xilent and Yanntek ("Ultrafunk" if you will). Depressing Xilent barely makes dnb anymore tho

This conversation is irrelevant because really it comes down to personal opinion.

Anyway... The way I always understood it, is that the term neurofunk was coined around '97 when ed rush, optical, matrix etc began to move away from the techy No U-Turn/Prototype sound & began producing a new more bass focused type of dark dnb. The Wormhole album is were it began & still to this day represents what neurofunk is. In the following years many producers copied & made their own version of this this sound, but none to such a high success as Ed Rush & Optical with Wormhole. These next parts are just opinionS so try & keep yourself calm while reading it... That was until '04/'05 when Phace & Noisia made their way into the scene with a somewhat modern take on that classic vibe. A new take, but still capturing the neurofunk vibe from yesteryear. As the popularity of these artists rose Noisia moved away from the sound & did their own thing. But Phace & Misanthrop stayed true to this sound & still represent what I would call modern neurofunk in many, not all but many of their tunes.

90% of Lifted's releases are not neurofunk & Neonlight is not in any way shape or form a neurofunk producer. Some elements in his tunes are, but neurofunk is never, ever, ever ever, ever, ever cheesey. Which Neonlight undoubtedly can be at times.

Just my opinion so please take some deep breaths...

JaceWzu said:

Definitely! If you follow him on Facebook he's always posting the most bizarre videos about sound design or crazy shit.

Have you ever read his soundcloud descriptions? "Psycho analysis transforms the human mind into post-apocalyptic robotic rubble." It's always crazy shit like that. Unique individual.

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I like shit like that; shows he thinks (well) outside the box.

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armed said:

u wot m8?

billain and noisia are ultimate groove makers imo....and imo, that's where the funk comes from.

listen to the first tune i posted in this thread...especially at 2:35...that is future funk if i've ever heard it.

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I've been jumping on the Noisa stuff very late, but the tracks I've heard, I think some of them capture the closest to the late 90s' Ed & Op Wormhole stuff, if were made a few years later. I'd say that more in the case of bass experimentation than the drum work, tho.

Lemme just take a moment to say how much I fuckin' love neurofunk. Does anyone know of producers who have tried incorporating samples from old games (say, Genesis games like Shinobi or ThunderForce IV, which has a fantastic soundtrack) in a neurofunk production? I've been thinking to trying that production-wise but am riddled with questions on how to make it work.

balistics said:

This conversation is irrelevant because really it comes down to personal opinion.

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By that logic, this whole forum is irrelevant...

Let the wisdom of youtube guide us.



(Taken from the latest NFG vid)

Mania said:

Let the wisdom of youtube guide us.

(Taken from the latest NFG vid)

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jesus christ.

armed said:

jesus christ.

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Screw the genres name. I'm so confused now lol.

Out of the 3 main categories of drum & bass, Liquid, Jump Up and Neurofunk. Neurofunk is the only one to not change its sound and that's probably why Neurofunk is still smashing it

dat_skunk said:

By that logic, this whole forum is irrelevant...

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I guess that you could also argue that these days most forums are irrelevant.

But dnb forums aren't all about opinions for me anyway, they are a place I come to find information about the music I love, whats coming, what people are loving/hating etc etc. To Keep my finger on the pulse for lack of a better term... Plus I enjoy other peoples opinions on dnb, it's good to see things thru others eyes, sometimes it even changes my opinions.

armed said:

jesus christ.

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Jesus wept.