With Paul Rose, it’s like Forest Gumps’ damn box of chocolates. In 2008, there was a strong dedication to utterly reduced dubstep. Then, in 2010, there was the big Opus-Magnum-gesture as a farewell to the very same. And 2012? The reinvention of the 80s? Until now, the Englishman and Hotflush-operater has never been drawn to silly trends or requests by the scene. However, his third album, »Personality«, really does start with a glance back into the vocal-house-scene. But before too much current retro-narrowness makes us search for the stop button right at the beginning, Rose floods the track with streaming acid-line-drops in last second and saves it with the help of broad melodies. When listening closely, one can almost make out a somewhat jealous glare towards Sepalcure. Still, the foundation of it all remains oldschool. More break-beat than dub-techno, more Hip House sweetness than deepness, more metal than subbass-plush, more acid and trance than post-dubstep-ballad. In between, even a date with Beverly Hills Cop can be found. Call it warmth or kitsch, lightness or clumsiness, straight-in-your-face or oldschool-banter – Rose embraces these obvious ambivalences and plays them off against each other with great attention to detail. He does that with such a liberal spontaneity that it’s almost impossible to reject its embrace.
Personality
