54 SCUBA
A MUTUAL ANTIPATHY WORDS | Rahul Verma
What is dubstep? In mid-2008, it’s a very, forever. A big reason I’d stayed in London so it was a very liberating experience in that
very broad church: we’re all familiar with long was music, but I’d been getting bored of sense,” explains Scuba. “I didn’t really consider
Caspa & Rusko’s clownstep wobblers, the dubstep scene for a while so that wasn’t any listening situation when I was doing it,
Mala’s rootsy dubsoul, Pinch’s subtle subs really a reason anymore. Berlin seemed like and when I listen to it at home now it sounds
and Skream & Benga’s explosive steppers. the obvious place to go: it’s the best city in far too sparse in places for a proper listening
But what about Shackleton & Appleblim’s the world for electronic music, the clubs are album. Probably the ideal environment is
dubwise techno, Boxcutter’s aggy-glitchy- amazing and on a totally different vibe to sitting on your own in a big dark room with a
bass? Or Scuba’s stunning ‘A Mutual anywhere else I’ve been, they’re just mad. good pair of headphones on.”
Antipathy’, a 52-minute journey into glitchy,
Detroit-fl avoured dubstep noir? “London constrained and frustrated me in Dubstep it seems ideal for fi lm soundtracks.
terms of what was going on with music and Cyrus’ From The Shadows LP, is the sonic
‘A Mutual Antipathy’ is a complete LP that’s the dubstep scene generally. I’m actually equivalent of a Hitchcock thriller, while Burial
so evocative it conjures imagery of a Martian much happier with the way dubstep is going captured the essence of a post-rave night bus
terrain fl ickering into unknown, sinister life, now compared to a year or even six months home. What is about dubstep that makes it so
and could be the soundtrack to the next ago,” continues Scuba. “There’s so many suitable for fi lm scores? “I can see what you
instalment of Sigourney Weaver’s Alien sides to it and no one has tried to put it into mean: soundtracks are interesting and I’m into
franchise. In some respects its dark, desolate sub genres, which makes it really healthy. the idea of doing more in that direction, but the
and foreboding atmosphere refl ects the I’ve totally got my faith back in the music, it’s reason dubstep is so versatile is more that the
sparse feel of brutalist, concrete-coated great at the moment.’ 20 or so guys that were doing it fi ve years ago
Berlin, where Londoner Scuba now lives. stuck at it when no-one thought it was going to
One of the most striking aspects of ‘A Mutual go anywhere, kept developing their individual
“That’s true, but I can’t say living there Antipathy’ is the fact that it’s a proper album, ways of doing it and kept pushing it forward.
infl uenced the record that much because I rather than a collection of singles. Although I think that’s much more important than the
was half way through writing it when I moved there are 11 tracks, they segue fl uidly from sonic peculiarities of the music.”
and all I did when I got there was fi nish the one to the other with a momentary drop
record, I didn’t go out that much at all. It out notifying you that the next passage of Whereas Shackleton doesn’t consider his
does sound like a Berlin album a bit though,” detailed arrangements has begun. “I wanted music to be ‘dubstep’, and even though ‘A
explains Scuba. “Your environment infl uences it to be coherent - I defi nitely wanted it all Mutual Antipathy’ is as infl uenced by techno
your music to a certain extent - it does have to fi t together,” says Scuba, “but beyond that and electronica as dubstep, Scuba certainly
an effect on what you do. But then there are there wasn’t a concept or a higher vision or does: “Yeah it’s dubstep - dubstep is anything
so many factors that go into it, that it’s easy anything. I just wanted to make an album that at 140bpm with a lot of sub. It’s a broad
to give too much credit to a single thing. It’s you could listen to all the way through and it canvas, that’s why I like it.”
more to do with where you are in your head, would make sense.”
and your environment has a fairly signifi cant There in ten words is the defi nition of
effect on that.” It’s not particularly dancefl oor either, although dubstep. And that’s what makes dubstep the
the vibrating, echoey distortion, Carl Craig most exciting bass-led sound of the moment.
Why did the 28-year-old move to Berlin? “I’d synths and discrete subs of ‘Hard Boiled’ has
lived in London all my life, and it started to been released as a single. Did Scuba consider www.hotfl ushrecordings.com
feel like if I didn’t leave I’d be stuck there the dancefl oor at all making it? “No and writing
K54_Scuba.indd 54 24/4/08 14:45:50
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