If you’ve listened to breaks and followed it for the last few years, then you most certainly have heard of The Rogue Element and his debut album Rogue Rock back in 2004. It was an ambitious album that helped establish Ben Medcalf (Rogue) and his supremely unique sound, it was an album that proved that the man had a powerful ace up his sleeve with his massive beats and mega basslines, but couldn’t quite capitalise on it 100%.

A few years later and a string of remixes from time to time, and we see his second album drop unexpectedly entitled Lumina. But does The Rogue equal his debut?

We open to the glitched hi-hats and filtered liquid lead of Lumina, dropping a huge bassline over a clicky lead. Mid track we’re treated to steam like builds over a stretched squeal before it goes balls out with more of the big beats. Moving about Lumina, we hear a dubstep-esque tune called Binary Suite, with a grimey bassline, and a lurking dubbed beat. Adding to the creepiness of it all come the sparkle synth drop ins that feature throughout the album.

With Sidewinder, we see the big beats return as well as the mighty deep basslines as we’re treated to glitched out electro synth progression with sparkles and spaced out beeps popping in and out. However the big beats subside to make way to one of, if not the highlight of the album is a song that recreates last night’s dream with light hearted UFO styled lead over some cloud thin sparkles and comfortably deep bass. The build features the scratches and glitches of the usual rogue track, before we are treated to a stunning melodic chilled out track that utilises the big beats but to a different accord as the Rogue reorganises beat patterns to deliver one of the classiest tracks of the year.

The most vocal track on the album, Mistakes, works fantastic, as it intertwines the vocals, crunched lasers, beats and the sweeping bassline to craft an energetic dance track that continues the melodic run. This run is given a dose of steroids without the ball shrinkage, when you see the upcoming tune, Hive.

You know how you see song titles and go “I wonder what that would sound like” but the artist never actually answers the question. The Rogue does so with Hive, a track that’s lead synth is in fact an insane bee that has been possessed by the underground raves. It’s the most energetic track on the album, dropping sirens over a twisted and unbelievably cool lead.

When the album closes up shop, you stop to think. The Rogue still maintains his excellent sound, like Rogue Rock, Lumina represents a pretty big affair. It’s been a fair while since the debut, 4 years in fact. In that time the Rogue has been relatively quiet. His unique productions are still genuinely appealing and whilst some people might think the album shares similarities with its predecessor, it doesn’t. Lumina represents an evolution of the Rogue’s maturity and his approach to his music, in that his confidence shines and what descends from that is Lumina; one of the must find gems of 2009.