Beats From A Neurodivergent Brain is the brand-new album of leftfield, electronic dance music from CommsBreakdown.
It’s a collection of beats, breaks and bass with one eye on the dancefloor and the other on the beauty of repeating rhythms and patterns.
I was late-diagnosed as AuDHD (combined autism and ADHD) back in 2025, and while it’s been tough getting to grips with that diagnosis, it has made me realise just how important my brain type is in defining the way I make music.
The hyperfocus on making tunes, the love of repetition, the desire for structure and the need for new sounds (and dopamine) have all shaped the way I make music.
I hope you enjoy these beats as much as I love making them. The album is an eclectic mix of techno, IDM, drum & bass, electro and ambient techno.
So, whack up the volume, max the bass and get your dancing shoes on!
Let’s dive in with a rundown of the 10 tracks you’ll hear on the album:
1. Thundermonkey
Thundermonkey eases you in with old-school filtered drums and DJ-friendly beats and then drops everything out to highlight the gated guitar and pads. This track sets the tone for the whole album – beats, analogue-style synths and deep bass.
2. The Scientific Method
An exercise in minimalism, The Scientific Method focuses on the sound of the Roland Aira S-1 bassline, riffing over a sparse, precise techno beat. I resisted the urge to keep adding parts to this one, keeping it as simple and clean as possible.
3. Dark Arts
Keeping things minimal again, Dark Arts is a moody, skeletal drum & bass track that started out as an experiment – putting the beats through a vocal pitchshifter and multiple effects to mess with the beat. A big debt to both Photek and Source Direct on this one, I’d say.
4. Kaffeine
Another experiment – could I turn the sounds of my coffee machine into a drum & bass track? The answer was, YES! Kaffeine takes the whirrs and buzzes of the machine and turns them into a DnB roller, pushing the tempo up to 184bpm.
5. Fe Fi Fo Fum
Fe Fi Fo Fum is a tricky one to describe – is it grime? Is it breakbeat? I’ll let you decide. The big 808 bass is the hook, alongside the sampled vocals and human beatbox noises. A touch of the Amen break livens things up, along with some wobbly dub piano and tape delay.
6. Drop The Break
Heavily inspired by early 90s rave, Drop The Break begins with a percussion loop that’s actually me hitting my rabbit’s metal food bowl. Then the chords and breakbeats come in, and the rave synths swirl around your head like you’re back in a festival field in ’91.
7. Fight The Good Fight
Fight The Good Fight started out as a test of the Roland T-8 beat machine, combining the drums and TB-303 emulation with some proper electro sounds in Logic. Putting my vocals through a vocoder plug-in was the finishing touch for some updated 2020s electro.
8. Freezer Bath
Inspired by the news story of a bank of freezers in Sheffield, UK that were playing a perfect C sharp major ambient chord, I recreated the chord in Logic and built this IDM track around the chilled (literally) vibe. Shades of early Warp Records in this one, I have to admit.
9. ST8 Kontrol
A late addition to the album, ST8 Kontrol started by combining the Roland S-1 and T-8 to freestyle the drums, bass and 303 of this classic techno track. The backwards piano was then added to create some tension at the start of each section.
10. I Heart Techno
I Heart Techno started out as another experiment – could I take the sounds from a kids toy DJ mixer* and make them into a techno track? Sounds taken from the toy mixer were sampled, manipulated and effected, with additional 909 drums, 303 acid lines and synth sounds added.
*Original sounds sampled from the Bump DJ Mixer, made by UGT International and sold in Coles supermarkets.
Explore the whole CommsBreakdown catalogue
You can find out more about CommsBreakdown on my Music page here.
There’s a great Q&A interview on Brian Roach’s Substack, where I look back at my musical influences
There are ten eclectic albums of orginal electronic music on the CommsBreakdown Bandcamp page – plus a host of EPs and single releases to explore.
And you can find my releases on all the main streaming platforms on my LinkTree
CommsBreakdown 