Scuba - Adrenalin EP

01. Adrenalin
02. Never
03. Everywhere

The man behind Hotflush Recordings- Scuba (aka Paul Rose)- has dropped an absolute banger right here peeps! Although he is renowned for his contribution to early dubstep and the rebirth of garage, with Adrenalin, Scuba has explored deep house and retro breakbeats with main-room 4x4 beats, powerful vocals and rising synths all thrusting you into a 1980s New York disco.

The title track, ‘Adrenalin’ entrances the listener with arpegiated synth chords and a distant reverberated voice fading up slowly until the cold house-beat slams into them. The song keeps ascending until a funky bass- line bubbles up beneath it. Its got sweeping progressive breakdowns, crisp vocals and a heavy acid/deep house beat- simple but very effective. You can’t really go wrong to be honest!

On the B-side, ‘Never’ and ‘Everywhere’ are even more retro- with warm catchy bass-lines setting the bouncing rhythms accompanied with sharp and crazy kicks, claps, snaps and break-dance vibes. Again short crisp vocals are utilised very well to give the tunes more 'dance-ability' and listening pleasure.

Adrenalin is a definite salute to the retro sounds, the days of the boombox and matching shell-suites. It's a very popular sound, and Scuba has managed to capture it without sounding dated. It’s an exemplary EP that demonstrates the forward-thinking of Scuba and his Hotflush Label. Fans of Falty DL, Joy Orbinson and Hyetal should defo check this EP. Fans of Scuba, should be pining for it!...www.hangout.altsounds.com

Scuba - Triangulation

1 Descent
2 Latch
3 Three Sided Shape
4 Minerals
5 On Deck
6 Before
7 Tracers
8 You Got Me
9 So You Think You're Special
10 Heavy Machinery
11 Glance
12 Lights Out

The advantage of being the younger sibling isn't just having someone to look up to, but also being able to learn from their mistakes. So it is with dubstep producers, who might have started out borrowing the attitude of their predecessors in drum & bass, but subsequently seem to have avoided many of the pitfalls that befell the junglists. This is particularly true when it comes to albums. Or, more specifically, following them up.

Drum & bass threw up awe-inspiring debuts like Goldie's Timeless and Roni Size's New Forms, only to provide crushing disappointment on the sequels. One thing that's been surprising about dubstep isn't just that it works so well in the long-player format, but that second albums have often been better than the first. Burial both refined and widened the palette of his debut, the imminent Ear Drums and Black Holes from Starkey has a scope his 2008 debut Ephemeral Exhibits only hinted at and Triangulation—the new album from Paul Rose, AKA Scuba—takes all the elements of 2008's A Mutual Antipathy and more to the next level as well.

Or should that be deeper down instead? As his moniker suggests, Scuba has always had a somewhat aquatic sound. Indeed, "Minerals" even begins with the noise of dripping water and sonar bleeps. But what really makes Scuba feel so submerged is the feeling of pressure here, bending the different styles into strange new mutations like alien-looking fish who feed at the bottom of the oceans. "Heavy Machinery" has a house beat anchored by a grinding dubstep bassline, while "Three Sided Shape"'s two-step rhythms are awash with electronic flotsam and drowned vocals.

It can definitely get dark down there, but Triangulation never sinks in misery, the closing "Lights Out" has the same warm house undercurrents and rhythmic invention as Joy Orbison. He also remembers to come up for air—"Before" and "So You Think You're Special" both boast the kind of soulful phased vocal effects Instra:mental have made their trademark, an influence Rose might well have developed working with them and D-Bridge for Autonomic recently. That elder drum & bass heads like Instra:mental and D-Bridge are actively looking to the younger dubsteppers for inspiration confirms that dubstep has come of age, a fact that an album as mature and well-rounded as Triangulation makes even clearer...www.residentadvisor.net

Sub:stance Mixed by Scuba

01 Sigha - Light Swells (In A Distant Space)
02 Airhead - Paper Street
03 Sigha - Early Morning Lights
04 Pangaea - Sunset Yellow
05 Joy Orbison - The Shrew Would Have Cushioned The Blow ..
06 Shortstuff - See Ya
07 Untold - No-one Likes A Smar tArse
08 Scuba - You Got Me
09 Surgeon - Klonk Pt.4
10 DFRNT - Headspace (Scuba's Secret Mix)
11 AQF - Born And Raised (Version)
12 Badawi - Anlan 7
13 Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo
14 Mount Kimbie - Maybes (James Blake Remix)
15 Sigha - Seeing God
16 Ramadanman - Tempest
17 Instra:mental - Voyeur
18 Sigha - Shapes
19 George Fitzgerald - Don't You
20 Scuba - Minerals
21 Shackleton - It's Time For Love
22 Digital Mystikz (Mala) - Stand Against War
23 Scuba - Last Stand
24 Joker - Psychedelic Runway

Ostgut Ton have announced plans to release a mix album in conjunction with Berlin-based dubstep night Sub:stance. Since making its Berghain debut back in July 2008, Scuba, AKA Paul Rose, and Paul Fowler's Sub:stance parties have pretty much become the byword for forward-thinking Berlin bass music. Mala, Martyn, The Bug and Joker have been among the many names brought to the German capital over the last 18 months. The night's first birthday celebrations even saw the bash expand throughout the Berghain complex, with Stacey Pullen and Dan Curtin playing Panorama Bar. With all this in mind, it should come as no surprise that OsgutTon will be the home for the Sub:stance mix CD. Compiled and mixed by Rose himself, the disc represents a snapshot of the Scuba sound, with four of his own unreleased cuts making the grade alongside a healthy slab of material from his Hotflush imprint. While nicely varied in its scope and sound, the mix has an undoubted air of the dark side throughout, typified by appearances from Surgeon, Ramadanman and Shackleton.

Scuba - Aesaunic EP

01 Aesaunic
02 Flesh Is Weak
03 Reverse
04 Golden
05 Symbiosis

Hot Flush head and dubstep-techno crossover scientist Scuba, delivers one of his most diverse packages to date with the 'Aesaunic EP'. 2009 has seen impressive releases from the man with his killer 'Klinik' 12" and that awesome 10" for Naked Lunch not long ago, but this is the one you've been waiting for, featuring five tracks crossing tempo borders and stylistic bridges with a unified sense of sparse technoid futurism. 'Symbiosis' is the biggest jump, splicing halfstep D'n'B with the extra-slow pulse of Workshop style house, already getting DJ's like D-Bridge and Instra:mental quite rightly giddy with excitement. Title track 'Aesaunic' further hones his garage techno sound with a streamlined finesse, and the brilliant 'Flesh Is Weak' shows his capabilities as a deep techno producer, fashioning a rolling 124bpm Berghain shifter to slot next to your Horizontal Ground or Dettmann warehouse blocks. The 'Aesaunic EP' is simply essential for anyone tracking the lines of techno's splintered rhythm routes deep into forward bass culture. A Must...www.boomkat.com

Scuba - Bleach / Volt

1. Bleach
2. Volt

Hot Flush head Scuba aka Paul Rose revives his occassional Abucs imprint with two experiemental steppers cuts moving deeper into ultra-reduced dub-tech hybrid styles. 'Bleach' is an intensely crafty cut on the A-side, swiping the rhythm clean of any percussive reference points in the style of Kode 9's seminal 'Sine Of The Dub' and leaving only traces of fluttering hi hats and shivering snares in the cavernous dub construction. This is dub techno and dubstep merged in the truest minimalist sense, with only hints of rhythmic guidance making for a brilliantly abstract yet effective experiment. 'Volt' on the flip is no less brilliant, this time constructing a bare bones rhythm with a measured paucity of elements in the finest style of T++, before meshing in climactic acid lines filtered deep into the mix for a hypnotically involving dancefloor effect much like the Marcel Dettmann mix of his 'From Within' cut. Very few have managed to merge Berlin and London dub techniques as succinctly and effectively as Scuba and we can't get enough of it. Sick twelve...www.boomkat.com