- Proper breakbeat hardcore for proper ravers.
- What a long, strange trip it's been for Paul Rose. He launched Hotflush in 2003 right at the start of the dubstep epoch, and released some of the most scene-defining records that kickstarted the post-dubstep sound. Then he moved to Berlin and launched SUB:STANCE, an event series in the hallowed hall of Berghain, in 2008. The party was instrumental in bringing dubstep to the European masses and for infusing a harder, sleeker techno sensibility back into what was then becoming known as UK bass music. From there, Rose climbed to the upper ranks of the techno glitterati, spending time brushing shoulders with the one percenters in Ibiza and releasing some certified smash hits. His rise to the top wasn't without some growing pains. While 2015's Claustrophobia was a stunning techno album with meticulous sound design, his subsequent releases could feel like he was casting about for a new sound.
Since the pandemic, Rose has, if not completely reinvented himself, at least leaned into his role as a middle-aged statesman of dance music (and I mean this is the most affectionate way possible). He runs a weekly podcast that includes some of the most insightful and considered critiques of clubland around and, to celebrate 20 years of Hotflush, has been on a roll with his own music, even revisiting his 140 BPM glory days. Now he graces us with his first album since 2015, Digital Underground, an explicitly retro record meant to transport the listener to breakbeat hardcore heaven.
Digital Underground isn't technically an album. Rose packages it as a mixtape and includes a continuous mix where he slams through the tunes with the quick precision of an old-school Sunrise DJ. The mixtape format also helps Rose shy away from the sort of gravitas that have accompanied his albums in the past. His LPs are usually barometers of where his head is at, but they've also been state of the union-type releases. Triangulation, for example, was a mini-history of dubstep, while Claustrophobia was Rose's take on contemporary techno. Digital Underground, however, is pure unadulterated joy from an artist who has found a new (old) groove.
If this sounds familiar—cerebral DJ goes raving in early '90s UK—it's hard not to think of Zomby's monumental Where Were U in '92. Like Rose, Zomby took a break from his headsy post-garage meditations and locked into the earlier pirate stations for a bit of straight-up euphoria. Likewise, Digital Underground is everything an eccied-out teenager could ask for, filled with breakbeats, euphoric piano lines, mentasm stabs, chipmunk vocals and enough bassweight to sink ships. Rose's scholarship of the early hardcore continuum covers a wide range of sounds. There are ecstatic tunes à la Circuit Breakers ("E-mosh"), horror-filled hardcore that would have worked on Contagious Records ("Feel the Same"), dreamy rave numbers ("Move Like Shadows") and even loose, jazzy breaks that sound like proto-drum & bass ("Room With A View").
There's a risk in making a record too on the nose with its nostalgia, but Rose transcends the navel gazing with some 2023 sound design. There's a twinkling arpeggio on "Move Like Shadows" that feels tactile, off-beat kick drums on "Mr. Anderson" that give it a broken, dubstep feel and fuzzy distortion that gurgles through "Nowot," contrasted with an ethereal breakdown of spine-tingling chords. The past here isn't so much a destination as a initial set of coordinates. So, as the vocal on the closing track has it, the songs "may seem like yesterday," but Digital Underground is most definitely today.
Tracklist01. Tru Love
02. Mr Anderson
03. Nowot
04. E-mosh
05. Pls
06. Disrepute
07. Safety Traxx
08. Move Like Shadows
09. Zap!
10. Feel The Same
11. Room With A View
12. Yesterday