Scuba – Aesaunic EP [Hotflush]

Aesaunic is a five track two 12” EP from Hotflush main man Paul Rose aka Scuba, where he explores his rolling dubbed out Berlin techno infused dubstep sound over many tempos from techno through dubstep all the way to a half-step D’n’B experiment and it may well be the best slice of Scuba this year.

Opening track ‘Aesaunic’ rolls with an assured, punchy garage-techno skip with some seriously deep dub chords and a subtle progression, before you know it your vibing out and too far-gone, lost in sound. The breakdown is sublime with gentle swirling pads and a four to the floor kick ready to snap you back into action.

‘Flesh Is Weak’ may sound like the name to a Shackleton track, a man who also knows his way around the UK/German hybrid sounds, but this isn’t as scary as Shack. It’s a smooth house tempo number with dubby atmosphere and a seriously jarring glass smashing sample that signifies the drop into a subtle bubbly post-acid-house synth line.

‘Reverse’ comes on a little like Skream’s quality ‘Backwards’ on Deep Medi with a groove that feels like it’s both propelling forwards and backwards all at once. Scuba’s reversed vision is of the smooth and sinister, technofied kind though. The keys that make up the main motif are full of soul and urgency.

‘Golden’ reminds me a little of Hessel Audio’s Joe this track shares the tight percussive grooves that he has on ‘Grimelight’ they both use a deep house pallet but with a grime sensibility, Scuba gives it all a really deep shine that really manages to hypnotise and gives it a whole different vibe mind.

The real curve ball is ‘Sybiosis’ a minimal half step d’n’b track that’s been getting plays from dBridge and Instra:mental who are currently paving the way in that field with the fantastic Nonplus+ label and their own productions. Scuba takes his deep techno pallet of sounds and locks them to a loose swung groove that feels so different to the rest of the EP. What really makes this track is the female vocal sample over the mournful organ-like tones while wood block fills bring a little energy.

Dub-techno-dubstep productions can be so slick that you sometimes want an injection of rudeness plus some of it’s now not quite as fresh as it was this time last year due to saturation and ideas running out a bit but Scuba manages to stay head and shoulders above, along with some other purveyors of the sound like Appleblim, 2562, Ramadanman and Peverelist to name but a few and keep things fresh, interesting in that department and ready for the floor. The Aesaunic EP just oozes quality and shows Scuba experimenting so successfully over a number of tempos, settle in a feel this one.




http://www.hotflushrecordings.com/

http://www.myspace.com/paulhotflush