To break or not – that’s the question!

Under the “breaks” flag I span quite wide today – from a traditional breaks creation with clear retro-references, to a track that strictly speaking isn’t breakbeat at all – it just has much of that same mad vibe. And quite frankly it’s out of pure necessity – it’s not easy finding the breakbeat nuggets today!

Surmland Sound Science – Mindbender

Acidic arps, big rocking beats, Chemical Brothers style. Oh yeah, references aplenty to the good ole’ nineties. This is breakbeat the way we know it, those of us who’s been in the game for a while. And a fine example of it, too!

Surmland Sound Science is Fredrik Lundqvist, a Swede that despite his young age evidently knows his electronica history. ‘Minderbender’ is the opening track on his latest mini-EP ‘Acide Discothèque’.

Vari – Anodize

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m pushing it calling this breaks – but a lot of the same kind of energy we earlier found in breakbeat are today more often found in the “Leftfield Bass” genre. So I think they work well together.

The stomping and broken beats, the rumbling sub, overdriven gritty leads, staccato arrangement… Yup, these are also hallmarks of the breakbeat genre. In fact I’ll hereby expand the scope for our playlist to also embrace “Leftfield Bass” for this very reason!

And it’s the vibe more than the technicalities I dig with these kind of tracks. The unreserved, fragmented madness.


Our breakbeat playlist is slowly getting into shape, and holds some really great and frantic beats. Take a listen ands ee for yourself!