Claustrophobia is the fourth album by the British electronics devil Paul Rose. On his Hotflush Recordings label he had released not only his own albums, but also those of bands like Mount Kimbie. Today he lives in Berlin, where he has been closely involved in the activities in the Berghain nightclub, thé techno temple par excellence. Rose was in recent years a very popular DJ in the nightlife of Ibiza, but that period seems at least partly closed, because Claustrophobia, although still containing interesting dance tracks, has become a means to explore new horizons. He is giving his fans an hard time, surely, but the result is far more versatile than what Scuba has produced before, although the whole does not necessarily emerge stronger from the process.
Rose has a penchant for a multitude of sounds, and his compositions are therefore often a patchwork of electronics and field recordings. Levitation starts with the sound of steps on a stairway and then evolves to an atmospheric and rhythmic track with humming electronics, woody percussion and hand clapping. Why You Feel So Low has African drums, hard beats, the sound of bells and shuffling percussion, a thumping bass and solid metal hammering. It is passionate and hectic, with halfway the sounds of a choir and darker beats, new tempos, noise as of falling glass, etc. Television starts with dry percussion, sounds and echoes of drums, supplemented by fast beats, barely audible repetitive female voices, ambulance sirens, sounds of industrial machinery, trimmings and whistling electronics. A track that will certainly do well on the dance floor!
Drift begins with the sound of a quarrel, delicate electronics, fast drum beats and then a deep and dark undercurrent with tingling percussion. A crescendo seems to be coming, but then the tracks fades away in silence. PCP has a very different content and is clearly designed to please the dance fans: dark beats, high tempo drums, fast percussion, repetitive with a lot of little noises to attract the attention. A tough dance floor hit with a glockenspiel of distorted voices and haunting electronics, cinematic and bombastic, with a fragile finale.
All I Think About Is Death chooses a quiet pace with dark electronics, a multitude of female voices and various little sounds. Needle Phobia starts dark and atmospheric à la Aphex Twin, with a slow, thumping beat over which an electric piano sound is spread: a maturing hallucination in technicolor and at the same time a tribute to Autechre. In the intro to Family Entertainment we hear children crying, a quiet talking male voice slowly distorted by the electronics, with short and high pitched clicks in between and then a rhythmic hum, pounding beats and sizzling percussion, supplemented by bass drum and industrial noises, followed by a cloud of pure techno, chaotic, noisy, but rhythmic and organized. Black On Black closes the album. The track begins with dark echoes and male voices, abrasive engines and other industrial noise: an introspective and claustrophobic quest.
Scuba’s Claustrophobia contains four tracks that certainly will do well on the dance floor. For the rest, the influences come from ambient and IDM, so there is quite a bit of vicissitude, but perhaps you prefer to call it versatility. Claustrophobia is a (further) shift for Scuba and thus a search for a new and different audience.
Tracklist:
Levitation
Why You Feel So Low
Television
Drift
PCP
All I Think About Is Death
Needle Phobia
Family Entertainment
Black on Black