Since 2003, Paul Rose – aka Scuba – and his Hotflush imprint have shaped the direction of the electronic scene’s bass-heavy landscape more than most. Starting with the underground garage sound that became dubstep, and gradually teasing its dark, bass-heavy sonics through abstract electronica, jacking house and cavernous techno, they are the underground tastemakers behind era-defining club smashes like Joy Orbison’s ‘Hyph Mngo’ and 2013’s ‘Untitled’, the ubiquitous piano house banger by Paul Woolford. They also launched the careers of innovators as diverse as Mount Kimbie, George FitzGerald, Or:la, and Sepalcure.
The final quarter of 2019 saw Rose release his first new Scuba productions since 2015. Offering a contrasting sonic palette to his last productions, ‘Expectations’ was led by the tongue-in-cheek title track and a pair of analogue-rich productions ‘Burn Out’ and ‘Voices’, the latter featuring Rose’s own vox. A first collaboration with fast-rising DJ/producer Hammer followed with ‘Satellites’. The new decade sees the artist in prolific form, with two EP’s so far, ‘Never Forget’ and ‘This Is For You’, both works continuing his recent exploration of including live instrumentation in his productions works. A new remix pack of ‘Never Forget’ lands in May 2020 and July sees ‘Forgive Me’, a move into indie pop waters with the title track, influenced by electroclash, ‘70s Genesis and a ‘90s popstar...