One integral player in the early development of this subgenre is Rex, a producer whose music definitely belongs in the former, psytrance-inspired psybreaks category. After a long wait for new material, Rex fans were recently hovering over music download sites once more with credit cards poised as, on the 6th of April through the all-new label Broken Robot Records, this double whammy broke cover.

The curiously named title track, Evil Buddha Comb, is exactly the breath of fresh air that psybreaks fans have been gasping for. After a distorted sample of someone apparently drowning in a vat of electronic jam, it settles into a dark organic pulse and enormous slabs of sound are carved and served cold to create a chunky, kaleidoscopic riff. The rhythm is an entirely addictive and funky breakbeat affair which features a psytrance-style sub-bass kick drum and myriad glitches and fills, and ambient vocalisations and effects see us into the pauses. At this point, Rex weaves an incredibly complex web of psychedelia before reaching a rushing crescendo and dropping into a seriously solid tune which will unite die-hard psytrance lovers and faithful breaks fanatics on any dance floor – and that’s no mean feat.

Label: Broken Robot Records
Web: www.myspace.com/brokenrobotrecords
Format: Digital download
(exclusively on www.beatport.com)The B-side, Atom Smasher, acts rather as an antidote. Don’t for a second think this is some soft-as-shite pseudo-psychedelic stocking filler because despite what it may lack in pure impact, it more than makes up for in a brooding, almost melancholy maelstrom of digital sound.

This is an excellent release by any standard and, as the psybreaks subgenre is still relatively embryonic and limited in terms of the number of tracks on release, Rex has conclusively asserted his position as a very big fish in a small but flourishing pond.