Scuba is the recording name of UK techno producer Paul Rose. Since 2003, he runs the Hotflush imprint, which becomes closely associated with the development of dubstep, post-dubstep and related bass-heavy electronic styles. His work moves through underground garage, abstract electronica, jacking house and techno, and he also releases music under the alias SCB.

Career

As a DJ and producer, Scuba releases five artist albums and contributes mixes to the DJ Kicks and Fabric series. He wins a DJ Mag Best Live Act award and also runs the SUB:STANCE night at Berghain, the Berlin club, with the event taking place quarterly from 2008 to 2013. Through that series, he helps connect the UK dubstep scene of the 2000s with Berlin’s techno audience.

His releases show a deliberate shift between styles. A Mutual Antipathy appears in 2008 as a debut album with a darker, melancholic sound. Triangulation follows in 2010 and is rooted in shadowy cross-genre electronics. He then turns to deep 4/4 rhythms under the SCB name, before the Adrenalin EP leads into the 2011 album Personality, which draws on 1990s house. In 2015 he releases Claustrophobia, which moves toward experimental electronics and pounding techno. Under SCB, Caibu appears in 2018 and focuses on an introspective, dystopian atmosphere and the idea of climate-related disaster.

Hotflush Recordings

Hotflush serves as a key label and platform for a wide group of artists. It helps define the scene around club music built from dubstep, minimal and techno influences, and it is associated with tracks and artists that become widely recognised in electronic music culture. These include Joy Orbison’s “Hyph Mngo” and Paul Woolford’s “Untitled”. The label also helps launch the careers of Mount Kimbie, George FitzGerald, Or:la and Sepalcure.

Live work and releases

After a long period of touring, Rose steps back from live performance and marks ten years of SUB:STANCE with three releases: A Mutual Antipathy Revisited, which revisits the 2008 debut and includes a lost track from that period featuring Amp Fiddler; SUB:STANCE in Retrograde, a ten-track collection of unreleased material from the sessions for his first two albums; and Sounds of SUB:STANCE, a compilation drawn from artists linked to the series.