Scuba: Personality - Album Review

Scuba
Personality
Rating: Grrrr

Over countless 12", albums, and other releases UK producer and Berlin transplant Paul Rose, a.k.a. Scuba has been making his mark on the more esoteric side of dubstep, going for a more Burial-esque gritty and menacing approach, and finding time as his alter ego SCB to indulge his love of Berlin techno. There was a slight move last year on Scuba's DJ-Kicks compilation to merge his two loves together, and even throwing in nods to house and other forms of bass music. Indeed, Scuba even provided his polarizing "trance" single "Adrenalin" as a focus of the compilation, and strangely it all seemed to work. Such genre hopping usually can throw up some red flags, but in Scuba's case, it shows a mutual love for all strains of EDM, and this restlessness pushes his music and his sound. Honestly, it is difficult to predict what the man is going to do next, and that is something to get excited about. Based on his last full-length, Triangulation, I expected more atmospheric takes on dubstep, but on Personality, Scuba again confounds expectations and releases a stunningly varied array of techno tracks filter through almost every genre imaginable. For such an eclectic array of sounds, the album is remarkably cohesive.

Immediately you know you are in for something interesting with the first track "Ignition Key" which is a electrifying slice of techno. Crisp drums propel a burbling bed of electronics, broken up by icy stabs of synths.



There are nods to 90s big-beat techno, as on first single "The Hope," with a build that is tremendous in its execution. Lazer pointed synth blasts, snatches of diva vocal samples, and a creepy, deep voiced refrain of "Got the style/ Got the moves/ Got the money/Got the groove" move this track and the butts onto the dancefloor.



Brittle drum programming underpins the slamming track "Ne1betu" which builds into a fierce storm of house pianos.



And final track "If U Want" is a cold slab of deep house, with dueling female/male vocal samples doing a haunted call and response, which slowly reaches a lovely, almost ambient midsection, before brightening with sparkling synth lines.



"Cognitive Dissonance" begins slowly, drifting beds of synths over the top of "found sound" percussion (what sounds like cash registers and drawers opening), tipping your head to think it is going to be another Burial-esque dubstep workout, but changing into a drum and bass excursion, with deep wobbly bass and heavily echoed/reverbed vocal samples.



"Action" moves to a cold, relentless electro-house beat, which gets twitchier and twitchier as it progresses.



Some might be put off by the restless genre hopping going on over the course of Personality. Scuba has such a wonderful grasp on each one that in no way could be said to be pandering or slumming it; you can understand and feel his love and appreciation for them all. If/when I ever get my act together and start making music, that will be the hardest thing for me, is finding one thing to focus on. When you have broad tastes in music or anything for that matter, it can be quite maddening. Personality is well, almost too full of personality, but it is never overwhelming or too watered down. Scuba knows what he is doing that is for sure, and his restlessness is infectious.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.