Album Review : Scuba - Triangulation
- Written by Joe Bates
Dubstep is built on the 7-inch, the A side and the B side, but its major successes inevitably conform to the full-length format. A pessimistic view of this might be that the casual listener is missing out on the scene's identity and its heart, with artists and tracks huge amongst fanatics lost at sea unless the artists decide to release a 'proper album' – an Untrue or a London Zoo. But really, these albums serve as stepping-stones to exploration, intriguing progress reports on a genre that evolves so quickly the listener can never be fully sure of what the word dubstep implies. In that respect, Paul Rose, aka Scuba, provides one of the more exciting recent windows into this world with Triangulation, a moody dive into the underground, lit up by emotional vocals and beats which flicker like traditional dubstep but remain rooted to a 4/4 steadiness more akin to house music.
'Descent', the opening track, seems like an almost-literal take on what this represents – dark waves of synths close in on the listener, digitised pops and snaps increase the tension, whilst a minor melody flows in and out, a sad respite from everything else. It is some mood-setter, working well as a track in its own right. Elsewhere, Rose provides a mid-point between the sombre atmospherics of Burial and the more recent dubstep-dance epics of Joy Orbison, who is signed to Rose's own label, Hotflush, adding his own flair for texture to the proceedings. 'Three Sided Shape' is a joyous example of all this co-existing in one track so full of layers and touches that you'd think it would be too much to process at once. But the steady beats manage to anchor the listener throughout. Songs such as 'Latch' and 'Glance' manage the same trick of somehow putting everything good about dubstep into a single song without being exhausting or over-the-top.
Rose presents true innovation in the form of two songs on the album that gravitate surprisingly towards mainstream electronic pop. 'Before' is more-or-less a ballad, with repetitive vocals soothing as the phased synths and deep bass grow more distorted. Flying Lotus attempts similar things in his work but has not achieved a song that manages to be as simplistically appealing. In 'So You Think Your Special', Rose comes even further in from the left-field, with an unapologetically broad vocal hook and light keyboards which sound as close to Depeche Mode as they are to any dubstep artists. It is this spirit of evocation that provides the best dubstep with its charm, and Triangulation is at its most successful when it merges its own idiosyncrasies with those of other genres.
Triangulation only loses its way when the dancefloor becomes the sole ambition and the sense of individuality found in the rest of the tracks is lost in generic repetition. But this happens rarely enough for it to not spoil the flow or ruin the prevailing mood. Released a few months ago now, its critical reception implies that Triangulation has joined the select few dubstep albums that will go on to reach wider public consciousness. It deserves to do this, as it takes the listener on a 50-minute atmospheric journey through the new and the familiar that proves both Scuba's versatility as an artist and the still-exciting flexibility of dubstep as a genre.