Countless words have been written about Paul Rose's transformation from gloomtastic dubstepper to fear-no-neon denizen of peaktime. Even months after his third full-length Personality, the apparent apex of his bombastic new sound, I'm still coming to grips with the sort of sunshine that's followed such profoundly persistent drizzle. Following Rose's remix of Recondite's "Jaded," the darkest Scuba cut in a minute that still managed to be the most uplifting track on the much-lauded On Acid, Recondite completes the trade by offering two renditions of Personality's stadium-sized first single "The Hope." As you'd expect from On Acid's soothingly downtrodden techno, the Berliner takes things down more than a few notches, though the results are mixed.
If one were to pick a signature element of "The Hope," it would likely be Scuba's dare-I-say rap—you know, the one about having the system and all that. It couldn't not sound a little ridiculous, but amidst so many grinding synths and fog-machine blasts, it kind of worked, maybe even brilliantly. Set amongst the rainy-day drums and blurry drones of Recondite's "Nocturnal Car Ride" mix—all of which is wonderfully restrained and delicate in its own right—it just sounds ridiculous, caveat-free. That resigned sigh Recondite leaves in at the end of the track basically sums it up: when the track ends, it's a relief to get some air after all that awkwardness. The "Morning Promenade" mix thankfully makes more creative and cohesive use of the source material, adding up to one of Recondite's finest sides yet: pairing the original's driving beat with expansive pads, it moves Scuba from superclub to Gothic cathedral.
Buy Scuba - The Hope (Recondite Remixes) at
  
Tracklist: Scuba - The Hope (Recondite Remixes)
 A The Hope (Recondite's Nocturnal Car Ride)
B The Hope (Recondite's Morning Promenade)
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