The evolution of Neurofunk

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Depressing stuff:


http://energyflashbysimonreynolds.blogsp...e-and.html
droid Wrote:Depressing stuff

only if you still give a shit Wink
I didnt give a shit about Michael Jackson, but it was still depressing to see that potential evaporate.
droid Wrote:but it was still depressing to see that potential evaporate.

Did neurofunk have potential beyond what it was?

It just did that...and then continued doing that...and then continued doing that...and then continued doing that...

The apposite parallel, I think, is indie rock, which has "continued doing that" for over 30 years. Yawn
Sorry, I meant the potential of jungle/d+B.
I hate drumandbass its rubbish. Anyone who listens to it has a tiny penis.
Human Reptile Slayer

Used to play that a lot
Drums (expect the lo quality video made them all sound the same)
Whats the problem here? Those two vids Simon Reynolds posts as 'proper' neurofunk sound like straight 1998 era two-step to me. Who cares what Simon Reynolds thinks. Who asked him to 'coin' 'neurofunk'.
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haha although I like a lot of his writings I find some of his observations a bit annoying and inaccurate. His love for pills had obviously waned well in to extinction by 1998. Sure neurofunk definitely didn't go too many places after that except get more clinical in the production but he does like to dismiss anything that doesn't fit in to the hardcore continuum framework.
beats are there to be broken http://musicindevon.org/
I think his basic contention that neurofunk was shit and an evolutionary dead end is pretty much spot on TBH. I dont really see what a punters love of pills has to do with radical changes in the music and scene itself.
Was never really into that side of DnB myself, but for a critic of Reynolds stature (and I have a lot of time for the guy) to cobble together a youtube video of vaguely similar sounding tunes and write a blog post about how they're all shit seems like a very unproductive use of his time.

As for it being "the default sound" I'd disagree with that really, you wouldn't hear any of that stuff played within an asses roar of a One Nation (you'd get far worse muck than anything in that video!).


Yeah the template of angry midrange / compressed two-step / filtered bassdrop / strings lifted from a sci-fi trailer is rinsed out to bejaysus and bugger all of value is still being made, and it sounds shit if you play it for a full hour, that's not really news IMO - you could apply the exact same criticism to people still getting excited about Amens / 808 basslines / strings / random vocal sample ripped from a youtube video of a soundclash, or the vast number of heads who continue to refine the 2006 halfstep Dubstep sound with incrementally better engineering. So what? That's pretty much the story behind all other genres of electronic music now...

For what it's worth, and I hestitate to call him a "neurofunk" producer because he's done a lot more besides, Rockwell is doing some pretty interesting stuff in that corner, Fracture and Neptune were turning into full blown "neurofunkers" until Fracture had his damascene conversion to Footwork (right on time too).



Misrepresenting DnB by assuming that tunes that pop up on Beatport / Soundcloud etc and are tagged "Neurofunk" are what modern DnB is about because you remember Bad Company and Virus tunes wrecking your head when you used to go to DnB clubs (as I think Reynolds and yourself are doing here) is pretty far from the truth and is both less interesting (as well as sadly less depressing it must be said!) than the reality.


(and "The Nine" came out 1998 as well, tsk tsk.)
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Face
Keep JUMPin ya Bastids
Yeah... he didn't make the video he just linked to it. And yes, I'm you could (or he could) do the same for multiple genres and get the same result. I think his point was that he recognised the sound and coined the term to be derogatory at the time, and has to some extent been proved right by the lack of development since.

As for the 'default sound' sure. I agree there, but it is/was a major strain.

BTW. I pretty much stopped going out before this stuff had a chance to wreck my head, and afaik, Reynolds was long gone by the time this stuff came around, so I think you're a bit off the mark there.

I was just thinking about what a video of the evolution of jungle from 91-96 would sound like in comparison. Thats the depressing bit.
Naphta Wrote:Face

Lol
Hahaha
droid Wrote:I was just thinking about what a video of the evolution of jungle from 91-96 would sound like in comparison. Thats the depressing bit.


Well it would depend what tunes you put in it really, I mean you could very easily cherry pick a tune or two from each year from 91 - 96 and make the case that the engineering got better, the tunes got faster and a bit more dj-friendly and ideas started to get rationed out less generously; in much the same way that if you googled me and copy-pasted the right ten sentences out of every post on every forum I've ever posted on you could probably make it look like i'm fierce intellectual altogether...

I'm not even really sure that he coined the term in a derogatory way - he might say that now, but reading the passage in Energy Flash where he first uses it (to describe Doc Scott "Shadowboxing" which hardly falls under the umbrella of anything we'd lump in with that sort of stuff nowadays anyway) it doesn't really read like that at all, more like a neutral socio-musical comment on "the eroticisation of anxiety", as he so memorably puts it.

But yeah, there's a whole metric fucktonne of shite linear production-over-ideas techy rubbish about, and there's a whole metric fucktonne of shitty examples of pretty much everything else as well. Good DJ's are required to sort through all that crap and play the gems, mix them up with other styles and put them all together so each tune sings it's strengths without drowning in blandness - wasn't it ever thus?
...it's like a bloody LIBRARY out there!!! http://twitter.com/executivesteve
noisemonkey Wrote:haha although I like a lot of his writings I find some of his observations a bit annoying and inaccurate. His love for pills had obviously waned well in to extinction by 1998. Sure neurofunk definitely didn't go too many places after that except get more clinical in the production but he does like to dismiss anything that doesn't fit in to the hardcore continuum framework.

Certainly respect his ability to write and I enjoy reading his stuff. However, all too often I get the impression that he sees himself as a tastemaker rather than a reporter. IMO that's a dangerous position to take, especially if you yourself don't partake in the creation of the "artform" itself, but somehow have control over the buzz that it creates (same applies to the power of larger entities e.g., Pitchfork, RA).

I do respect his constant search for a new musical "high" tho, but he seems to be unashamedly ignorant to the fact that people experience music differently, and he's generally not into minutia.
droid Wrote:I think his basic contention that neurofunk was shit and an evolutionary dead end is pretty much spot on TBH. I dont really see what a punters love of pills has to do with radical changes in the music and scene itself.

what I mean is that he wasn't experiencing the music in the context that most other people were, ie from the comfort of his own armchair rather than the dancefloor. Also he has rather a strong dislike of anything that isn't overtly raucous in nature hence his dismissal of detroit techno and other more arty subgenres.
beats are there to be broken http://musicindevon.org/
I've never recognised the validity of 'neurofunk' as a genre

If Simon's first 'understanding' of it is Nasty Habits 'Shadow Boxing' then I would argue he inappropriately termed a pre-exisitng form with a new name, that being 'hard step'.

'Hard step' drum & bass the concept as developed by Grooverider (and the Inta crew) from late 93 to 95, which later went on to be known as tech step, another term I've never really accepted the validity of but came into too much ubiquitous use to be disregarded

You can see Grooverider's concept of the form from his tunes such as 'Terrorist' 'Greater Love', and if you listen his show distantminds uploaded 28th Dec 1994 you can hear him playing 'Saint Angel' and saying "that is what you call hard step!!"

However my understanding of neurofunk is the 'virus' sound that Ed Rush & Optical developed. Hence to me it is the height of naming a genre simply over a musical trend.

So what if it hasn't developed? If you're defining it over such a narrow band of music where do you expect it to go? All them tunes in that 'evolution of neurofunk' video to me are simply apeing that Virus/Ram/Bad company sound
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tyranny Wrote:I'm not even really sure that he coined the term in a derogatory way - he might say that now, but reading the passage in Energy Flash where he first uses it (to describe Doc Scott "Shadowboxing" which hardly falls under the umbrella of anything we'd lump in with that sort of stuff nowadays anyway) it doesn't really read like that at all, more like a neutral socio-musical comment on "the eroticisation of anxiety", as he so memorably puts it.

Shadowboxing was a herald of what was to come (which its rather wack remix realised), but it had a kinda unique character. However its dead-march rhythm, lack of structural change, and focus on frequency modulation certainly paved the way for neurofuck.

btw, the term 'neurofunk' was implicitly critical - insofar as it was intended to be oxymoronic.

Jason oS Wrote:I do respect his constant search for a new musical "high" tho, but he seems to be unashamedly ignorant to the fact that people experience music differently

He's a critic. It's not a critic's job to refrain from comment just because someone else might feel differently about something. Reynolds was a Raver and then a Junglist, no doubt, but he was always a critic, first and foremost. I for one was always glad that he never copped out with some lame "But hey! Different strokes, eh?" tack. When he thought something sucked - even something he loved as much as Jungle/dnb - he dared to say it. That takes far more balls than taking the Belle-Fortune route of "It's All Good - FOREVER".

noisemonkey Wrote:what I mean is that he wasn't experiencing the music in the context that most other people were, ie from the comfort of his own armchair rather than the dancefloor. Also he has rather a strong dislike of anything that isn't overtly raucous in nature hence his dismissal of detroit techno and other more arty subgenres.

He loved 94/95 Moving Shadow e.g. Omni Trio, which couldn't possibly be described as 'raucous'. Urgent, energised, explosive, dynamic, joyful.. yes. And as for preferring Chicago to Detroit, so what? Personally I'd much rather some 303 or mutant jack/disco to 'Strings of Life'.

PS he also did his time on the dancefloor at the height of Rave/Jungle in the UK, so to characterise him as some kinda 'armchair critic' is simply wrong. Sure, he eventually moved on, but do you need to experience Skrillex on the dancefllor before you can legitimately call his music shit?

Ornette Wrote:I've never recognised the validity of 'neurofunk' as a genre

You may not have, but the rest of the dnb world has. Even if (as Reynolds) points out, the term is being used to describe something quite different from what he originally intended.

Quote:'Hard step' drum & bass the concept as developed by Grooverider
was a term that never caught on. It was designed to (a) create a distinct identity for hardcore that wasn't following the evolvng Jungle template and (b) to put a name to the stuff with a distinct kick-snare pattern that Grooverider (let's be honest here) found he could actually beat-mix without too many clangs.

But either way, 'Neurofunk' caught on, whereas 'Hardstep' (like 'Artcore') didn't.

Quote:So what if it hasn't developed? If you're defining it over such a narrow band of music where do you expect it to go? All them tunes in that 'evolution of neurofunk' video to me are simply apeing that Virus/Ram/Bad company sound

This I agree with. I think Reynolds' highlighting of this compilation of 'neurofunk' is a terrific waste of energy. Who gives a fuck about how shit an unpromising sub-genre has gotten over the years? I really think he could be focussing on something a little less 'I told you so'. Because: Yeah. We know. Roll
Keep JUMPin ya Bastids
I've said it on here before and I'll say it again for good measure:


"Neurofunk" (n.) - "Music made by people who were copying Optical without realising why Optical was worth copying in the first place"
...it's like a bloody LIBRARY out there!!! http://twitter.com/executivesteve
Far as I was concerned Neurofunk was a 'term' used by over-eager americans who didn't know any better, trying to show that they were down in 1998. Noone used it over here.
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http://www.hardscore.com/articles/lazerdrome/
Naphta Wrote:do you need to experience Skrillex on the dancefllor before you can legitimately call his music shit?

Lol
Ornette Wrote:Far as I was concerned Neurofunk was a 'term' used by over-eager americans who didn't know any better, trying to show that they were down in 1998. Noone used it over here.

Dnb stopped being just a 'UK thing' in the late '90s - probably somewhere around the time UK DJ/producers discovered they could charge stupid money from DJing abroad.

Now there's all sorts of splinter-scenes derived from dnb that don't know the first thing about where the music came from to begin with.
Keep JUMPin ya Bastids

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