To be honest, that's one of those things that is a little taboo... what I mean is, just because you can doesn't always mean you should.

Personally I think sticking a beat in with a breakdown is about the worst thing you can do. There couldn't be a worse place to mix from. It's sounds unatural in most cases and totally wrecks the energy of the track.
It also sounds cheap in most cases.

If you really want to do creative stuff with 'beatless' sections, do it with harmonies not beats. The exception would be if you matched a break beat style rythm something that totally changes the feel and gives it a new feel. But putting a straight 4/4 is pointless. But don't use it as an oportunity to mix in a new track. The one thing that a lot of DJs very often underestimate is the crowds desire to hear those bits in tracks and you may be surprised at the amount of annoyed expressions you get from peoples faces if you do stuff like that.

You also have to ask yourself, are you playing this track for people to like it or to show how clever you are?

Something you may want to look at is this.
Play a track up to a break down, but just as the breakdown starts replace it with a lesser (but still popular) tracks breakdown. What happens is that you have built up peoples expectations a little and then almost let them down but not totally disapointed them. Then about two tracks later do the same again but replacing a mediocre breakdown with the one you denied them to begin with. This time the reaction will be mental as they thought they weren't going to hear it. Only do this once in a night as again you will piss people off if you do it too much. If you play around I'm sure you will find something like this.

We all have different styles and there are always exceptions to every rule so do remember that I am generalising here. There will be a few 'beatless mixes' that sound good but it for the most part it sounds amateurish in my book.

My two euros worth.
Nem

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yeh i do agree with nem on mixing in and out of breakdowns with other tunes kicks.. i mean theres next to no point in doing it , otherwise the original tune itself would of had them.

In addition playing breakdowns without a bass drum can give the a crowd a breather from the "bang tsi bang tsi" all night, and let their arms go in the air for a while

However, like Nem said also, its a a nice trick to have up your sleeve when u can tease the crowd with another track on a breakdown and leave them wanting more in anticipation.

Actually if you happen to have the PVD set at trance energy available on the site here, listen to the Modulations - Spirits breakdown section, and you can hear the Three Drives - Carrera 2 being brought in, it sorta delays the breakdown and makes it shorter , therefore creating more energy within the mix.

Shouldnt be done too often as it can make you predicatable.

But in my earlier point i was referring to beat matching a kick from one tune to a non-existant kick in another through other elements other than percussion. This would come in handy if you missed the chance in a track to do simple kick to kick matching through one reason or another, or if the cued track doesnt have a lot of percussion in it.

Shit i rambled :S

yer i would say nem and eternal are right. but one thing i ocasionaly do is kill all bass most mid and a little treble on the incoming tune and as the breakdown comes to a close bring up the channel fader to create an extra bit of build up to the breakdown exit.

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heh nice tip dukes cheers ill give it a try tomoz .. not just now tho bit late and my flatmate 'll probable assrape me as revenge