Is it just me or is Paul Rose hesitantly poking his head out of that nuclear fallout bunker he calls a studio? While the Berlin-based London producer’s dubstep as Scuba has never shied away from melody, the techno he’s produced as SCB more often than not has seized on the more metallic aspects of his sound, arguably his least friendly music. “Loss” marks SCB’s debut outside the realm of Scuba’s own Hotflush family of imprints, and despite the downer of a title it’s just as much of a trip outside his usual sound into sunnier territories.
Layering grumbling, ropey bass over a precise rhythm that quakes with the infectious determination of disco but quivers with the precision of tech house, any qualms about “minimal” are doused by the soothing, cascading synths that are fast becoming Rose’s trademark. It’s the delirious vocal sample that ties it all together, turning “Loss” from fussy house into rapturous, blissed-out dance, catchier than most pop songs. Hewing a little closer to the dank and reverb-heavy sound we expect from Rose, “FutureUnknown” is the closest he’s come to directly aping his dubstep sound. He lashes metallic chords over more of that ropey bass (and sounding a lot like forthcoming electro-influenced Scuba material in the process), and it’s altogether more SCB; but true to form, the producer’s profile is as volatile and unpredictable as ever as he takes his irresistible sonic personality to further climes.
