The paths to fame are varied and treacherous, as Scuba found to his cost towards the end of last year. The London-raised, Berlin-based DJ and producer endorsed some derogatory comments about feminism on Twitter and found himself hauled over the coals and forced to defend himself by that other music site The Quietus. It was no way to start the promotional cycle for his third album.

That’s a pity because Paul Rose – Scuba in plain clothes – has a lot to be proud about. The founder of Hotflush Recordings, Rose has brought a whole wub of pleasure to the dubstep masses, signing up scene leaders Mount Kimbie and Joy Orbison and releasing two albums of his own that have stretched the boundaries of dubstep and bass. His debut, 2008′s A Mutual Antipathy, embraced the darker textures familiar from Burial’s urban itch but second album Triangulation, in 2010, revealed a keener interest in the groove, bringing him closer to Detroit, to more traditional techno. Now Personality arrives as a satisfying blend of all of these influences.

The result is dance music predominantly for the head, but which Rose gradually looking more to the feet as Personality forges on. The bass is subterranean from the off and stays down there, bringing a throbbing undertow to ‘Ignition Key”s breakbeat clatter and squelching away beneath ‘Underbelly”s icy atmospherics. Lead single ‘The Hope’ is an early tilt at the dancefloor, bearing flickers of DJ Zinc and Josh Wink in its crisp beats and ratcheting-up of tension, but Rose only really lets go on Personality‘s home straight.

That’s in the rapturous Italo house piano of ‘NE1BUTU’, as soulful vocal bursts ride shuffled beats and in ‘If U Want”s pitch-perfect take on deep house. While Personality‘s more rigid electronic workouts are fascinating in their construction – and there’s a nice line in threatening, subsonic patter – it’s good to hear Rose break free to create a more balanced album, pleasing the head-nodders and air-punchers alike. If he can steer clear of the ill-conceived opinions, he’s one to watch for all the right reasons.