Scuba is a respected producer, DJ and the head honcho of the label Hotflush Recordings (www.hotflushrecordings.com/). He’s from England but now resides in the mecca of dance music a.k.a. Berlin. He’s got more than 3 full-length albums of music to his name and they are all quality. Further, he oversees the development of many an artist on his label that are expected to go on to carve out quality careers for themselves.  But if you are that good, it will be hard to stay truly underground. People will come and people will want hear more of you! So yeah….. when you book a gig at a large venue like the Forum in London and have 6 different performers and an official afterparty at the Egg club in Kings X, you will be hard pressed to balance that elusive line between an underground/overground event.

To some, the term “underground” means, you can’t have too many flashing lights / cris-crossing lasers nor scantily clad dancers. People with this frame of mind maintain that the only things that matter are the music and the camaraderie of like-minded individuals. On flip side of the coin, there are others who are on the opinion that if they have to pay £16 for an event they deserve more than a dark room, a makeshift bar and the camaraderie of people they didn’t want to meet in the first place.  So Scuba had to walk a line and a line was walked: we got both, lights and no lights, both lasers and no lasers and there was a proper bar (courtesy of the venue). Though we got none of the scantily clad birds…. I say underground is not for everyone!The way Scuba achieved this dichotomy is that the first half of the gig (i.e. the warm up acts) was played in a completely dark room while visual entertainment only kicked in for Scuba as the main event. This is maybe fair enough. For example if you were to open for the Rolling Stones, don’t hope for a great reception from the crowd, any kindness of Mick and his gang nor that anybody (in the Stones or the crowd) will remember your name.  But is that what Scuba wants? Does he want us to forget his protégés? So is this underground or overground music? Is he a star or is he a caring father figure to the artists on his label? All in all, we were a little disappointed with the whole gig. His music is still great though so we will continue to devour his output….  

Written by Julius and Swim the Shine