This is drum’n’bass/breakcore artist Noel Wessel’s (aka DJ Hidden) 25th release over a 7-year period, not including aliases such Outside Agency and Semiomime, for a variety of labels.

Wessel’s skill as a producer is immediately evident on the opening Death Seer, expertly forging together seething, Bladerunner-like atmospheres, until thundering drum’n’bass beats shatter the moody calm.

On Here Lies The Confusion, Wessel also demonstrates an ability to transcend the breakcore genre, which can at times be a little soulless and lacking in melody, yet this is a sparkling track, with glowing melodies churning around a vaporous, grizzly background; the programmed beats and loops are ultra-crisp and unyielding. However, by and large, The Later After is dominated by gristly, dark cinematics, frequently giving way to volcanic eruptions of drilling breaks. But I do like the way Wessel is able to inject memorable passages of melody into his work, as on The Later After, and the wholly different, Straightjacket, a twinkling, almost ambient track, that again sees Wessel rise above the confines of the genre.

If you’re heavily into breakcore, you will have no-doubt heard of this Dutch master, making this a no-brainer purchase, otherwise, for those open to a mix between the dark cinematics of, say, Amon Tobin and the brooding melodic undercurrents of Front Line Assembly side-project, Noise Unit, without really matching the peaks of either, you may still be suitably impressed.