Fre4knc artist portrait

Artist profile · Drum & bass

Fre4knc

Deep in the music.
Closer to the artist.

Fre4knc is Groningen producer Bertran van den Hoff, whose drum and bass connects technical sound design, neurofunk roots, and hip-hop-influenced halftime.

Behind the music

About Fre4knc.

Fre4knc is Bertran van den Hoff, a drum and bass producer from Groningen. His music draws on the darker, technical sound of the late 1990s, with releases through Flexout Audio, Dispatch Recordings, and Critical Music. His catalogue also makes room for hip-hop-influenced halftime and collaborations with Amoss.

He approaches sound design through experimentation. For Rotor, he recorded a finger circling the rim of a glass and spent two days processing the result. A distorted bird sound supplied a hi-hat, while the bassline received similarly close attention.

The Alein EP on Flexout widened that range with Apophenia, a techno collaboration with his Groningen neighbour The Futurist. Little Things followed as another solo EP, with van den Hoff describing a renewed interest in melody during his 2022 interview about the release.

Artist styles

Source-reviewed associations with parts of this artist’s work. Individual releases may differ.

Neurofunk

High confidence · Historical original Fre4knc production described in 2019 interview

Source 1

Halftime

Moderate confidence · Hip-hop-influenced original production strand described by artist

Source 1