Scuba - Triangulation

Scuba (aka Paul Rose) has followed up his debut LP 'A Mutual Antipathy' (2008) with his latest creation, the 'Triangulation' LP (22nd March 2010). The LP has been released on his rapidly growing label Hotflush recordings, which has received an abundance of critical acclaim over the past few months for the forward thinking dubstep releases of Mount Kimbie and Joy Orbison, enhancing its already glowing reputation. Having moved from London to Berlin in 2008 to be closer to the home of techno, the influence of this culture can be seen to take effect on Scuba's work, along with influences from a number of different styles of music from the electronic world.

'Triangulation' is a more developed and mature album than that of 'A Mutual Antipathy'. When listening to the LP you feel like you're listening to a continuous mix, with each song flowing nicely and each different style complementing the previous. There are a few downtempo moments on the LP which sound almost ghostly, with these atmospheric tracks intelligently breaking up the record and allowing for a smooth and easy way back into the faster paced tracks. This style of sound is similar to the ambient and atmospheric tracks featured on Burial's 'Untrue', the man considered the master of these types of creations.

Tracks such as 'Lights Out' and 'Heavy Machinery' combine a house beat with a heavy dubstep bassline, something which may have been inspired by use of this formula in the recent successful releases from Martyn ('Great Lengths' LP) and Joy Orbison ('Hyph Mngo'). This is contrasted and balanced out nicely by the drum and bass beat featured on the brilliant track 'You Got Me', which is the track that you are most likely to hear from this LP played in a club (obviously good clubs/venues, not shit clubs where you are surrounded by drunken jocks wearing Jack Wills and DJ's who think it's a brilliant idea to play the likes of Lady Gaga, The Saturday's, N-Dubz, Tinchy Strider - I must stop here because just writing these names is actually becoming rather painful). Two-step rhythm also finds a place on the LP, most prominently on the track 'Three Sided Shape', where it accompanies the beautifully echoed vocals and the jittery ambient background.

For me this is a brilliant album, original, but also very intelligent in taking great influence from a number of successful and forward thinking artists in the genre of electronica and dubstep. This not only establishes Scuba as a leading dubstep artist with a fresh and innovative sound, but the 'Triangulation' LP can be seen as an example of future dubstep, inspiring the up-coming dubstep artists of today. (http://www.myspace.com/paulhotflush)

'Triangulation' Tracklist:

01. Descent

02. Latch

03. Three Sided Shape

04. Minerals

05. On Deck

06. Before

07. Tracers

08. You Got Me

09. So You Think You're Special

10. Heavy Machinery

11. Glance

12. Lights Out