By Peter Nicholson
Kevin Martin (aka the Bug) makes heavy music. The kind that’s like concrete on your feet, dragging you down to the riverbed, where the bassbins shudder and the rhythms rip in treacherous currents. Long before dubstep came aboveground enough to get nominated for the Mercury Prize, Martin was blasting Jamaican influences full of digital doom under guises like God and Techno Animal. London Zoo (Ninja Tune) is by far his tightest effort to date, coiled with hooks, a host of righteous indignation on the mic and plenty of bassline pressure.
“I honestly don’t consider my music ’dark,’” objects Martin to a common characterization of his sound. “‘Dark’ is gothic, overly theatrical and basically kitsch. I wanted to make a heavy, intense mindfuck full of great beauty and filthy dread, addressing the turbulent end times we are enduring.” Mission accomplished on London Zoo, which announces its intentions from the first track, “Angry,” featuring Tippa Irie. With an urgent clapping rhythm, Tippa’s strident indictments front and center, and Martin’s deep production harnessed to the song structure, this is the Bug v.2: more focused, more driven than the digital chaos that characterized 2003’s Pressure.
On all but one track, London Zoo features guest vocalists, many of whom (such as Killa P and Flowdan from Roll Deep) Martin hooked up with via dubstep main-man Kode 9, who will release Martin’s next King Midas project on his Hyperdub label (home to Mercury Prize-nominated act Burial). Martin himself cites Tippa’s performance as a surprise among all the collaborations. “I was shocked by just how pro and lethal dancehall veteran Tippa Irie was. Largely known for sugar sweet ’80s tunes, he brilliantly adapted his style to my intense backdrop, and spat his fired-up lyrics passionately. Thankfully he was not a just a mercenary, opportunistic vocalist looking for cash alone. He was totally committed to his message on ‘Angry’ and had mesmerizing execution.” With a wicked menagerie on the mic, Martin’s London Zoo is unflinching digital dancehall, the perfect soundtrack for a world out of balance.
