Paul Rose's label Hotflush recieved copious amounts of attention after releasing Joy Orbison's killer tune Hyph Mngo back in the summer, and now Rose has released his second album Triangulations to a much larger audience, under the name Scuba. Unsuprisingly, his work inhabits the same musical niche as J Orbs, as they both create spacey, subtle works that are as much fun to dance to as they are to simply sit down an listen to. However, the opening chords of the lead track from this album, Before sounds very similar to Hyph Mngo, so much so that it would be easy to think one was a remix of the other. Describing it it this way does it a disservice though, as the rest of the track (and the album) is much more original.
Scuba's form of "dubstep" (it's technically dubstep, but its such a broad term) is heavily influenced by techno on tracks such as Minerals. On others the tracks are less opressively repetitive, and is where the album really shines, such as on the aforementioned Before and You Got Me. Despite the techno influence, Rose uses a healthy amount of organic sounds, which add subtlety to the otherwise hypnotic beats. The synth on Latch makes it sound very much like a Burial track, to which Rose's music has much in common, as this, like Burial's Untrue, serves best as a chilling album, for when driving or taking a night bus.
Overall, the album is very understated, letting the infectious rythms creep up on the listener rather than being immediate. Unfortunately, it does suffer because of this as the album never has a release, which is slightly frustrating. This fact should not tar what is an excellent late night listen.
Scuba - You Got Me by Hotflush
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