Disciples of Skjaak - Big Black Hat [FLAC]

so, I took the time to give it a listen, i'll have a go at it
track 1 & 2 do fall in the breakbeat category (allthough loosely): track 1 takes me back to the good ol' bigbeat days of the first "Brassic Beats" compilations on Skint. track 2 reminds me a bit of 90ies boom boom satellites and even some 1-speed bike like the album:
https://www.discogs.com/release/212640-1-Speed-Bike-El-Gallito
track 3: no breakbeat here though
as to your question of 'broken beats', that's something I usually associate with acts like truby trio, jazzanova, voom:voom, domu etc (oh and I found this:)
https://www.discogs.com/style/broken%2Bbeat

Cool release!

This is definitely a hybrid of multiple subgenres:

electro/breaks, bass music, breakbeat in track 1 and 2.
2-step and (garage) house, mainly in track 2
rave/techno/tribal in track 3

first two tracks remind me very much of Neil Landstrumm, who is probably more than well known and influential in Dublin/Ireland. sludgey, morphing, bassey. stabby synths and deep modulations - maybe similar to Blawan, as well? It's not afraid to make the crowd miss a beat and keep them on their toes.

second track has a definite "spin spin sugar" speed garage (house) hommage going on. It's more dull and dark in tone though, never building up to a huge peak/drop. makes for a pretty badass and gloomy tune.

third track switches gears and drops all breakbeats, for a hypnotic and pounding rave groove; reminiscent of Spiral Tribe or other tribal / freetek outfits.
reminds me in particular of some Pink Abduction Ray songs, but that's not a helpful comparison to most.

Interesting vibe on this one, for sure. Makes me think of someone that's transitioning from a difficult state of mind (paranoia, dark and brooding thoughts, unease, aggressive undertone) into a more hypnotized, flowing state that is less hassled and more removed from his sorrows. no more sporadic and odd little changes, but clinging to the steady beat and looking out for what's to be expected next on this journey.

Or maybe Disciple of Skjaak simply had to quickly slap together a B-side so the release could be called an EP and get shipped, who knows. I like my head-canon more by now either way.

Re: Broken Beat: I'm pretty ignorant on that genre, but from what I can gather, it's more closely related to Jazz Fusion/Acid Jazz with syncopated beats and chopped (to very chopped) drum loops and somewhat of an industrial/technological styling. most songs seem to include vocals. I would put it adjacent to what we call "IDM"/braindance now. And to give this surface level definition something of value on it's way, I recommend a listen to "Afronaught - Transcend Me", which is categorized as Broken Beat / Future Jazz. Good shit.