Portugese artist Impex is a bit of a contrast. He’s been quietly making some of the most agressive neurofunk to-date from his home base in the idylic Azores since 2019. Not exactly an area one would picture churning basslines and chaotic amens coming from, but with his origins being forged playing bass guitar in metal and hardcore bands in the early 00s, the pieces rapidly start to come into place.
After going to one of Robyn Chaos’s Therapy Sessions shows in Lisbon, it seems the neurofunk die was set for Impex, and now he’s got a discography that includes Korsakov, Dirtbox, Evolution Chamber, Eatbrain and of course, long-time supporters Gutting Audio. The latter in that illustrious list is dropping his next rager of an EP, Bad Boys, this Thursday, 26 February.
One of the most fun things about Impex and his work is that he manages to stay staunchly dedicated to neurofunk whilst still forging his own path and incorporating new and unexpected sounds into every release. The aggression and precision is always there (it’s relentless, in fact), but the neurofunk formula that has become a standard in the subgenre in recent years is almost always tipped on its ear.
Such is the case with Bad Boys, where Impex brings darkstep bass synth forward and makes it gnash its teeth in rage as the drums leave space for more and more distrortion on opening track ‘Don’t Stay Safe’. It’s certainly not safe, and the title track with Vandermou follows just as dengerously. The intro lulls the listener into a false sense of security with a hint of melody before it devolves into more metal-on-metal chaos with glitches galore.
Kmag were lucky to snag a premiere of the EP’s last track, ‘Split Lip’ which, per its name, delivers the final blow of this neurofunk fight club. Easily the most diverse and wild track of the EP, ‘Split Lip’ combines all the best parts of the other two tracks with a grinding bassline and darkstep-infused intervals between phrases whilst adding even more chaos with surprising amens seemingly randomly interspersed throughout the track before it the break, which is barely a break because it’s a whole freaking evil 174 techno track, after which another amen break beings back the original loop. It ends with no apologies: just another amen, a rombotic vox sample and a sonic split lip.
