Send "The Bug " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Both as the Bug and King Midas Sound, UK producer Kevin Martin has been heavily invested in dubstep's Jamaican roots. The genre of course takes inspiration from dub and dancehall, but Martin highlights this more than his contemporaries, putting reggae elements up against low-end grime and the echoes of desolate urban soundscapes. His still-thrilling London Zoo from 2008 is the best example of this fusion and one of the defining LPs of dubstep's ascendancy. It's been a while since we've heard Martin in Bug form, though, and the genre has changed drastically since, splintering off into dozens of microgenres and regionally focused styles.To reintroduce the project, Martin presents Infected, a double 12" (basically an EP) that features two new cuts and two pretty high-profile remixes. The EP is intended as a bridge between London Zoo and his next full-length, which is being described as a "dub battle" between him and producer Adrian Sherwood, who's known for working with Lee "Scratch" Perry and early industrial acts like Cabaret Voltaire and Ministry. The two new songs here are both solid. "Catch a Fire", which features King Midas contributor Hitomi, is nice and woozy but essentially an extension of the blown-out downtempo shuffle already explored on KMS' Waiting for You. "Tune In", though, a collaboration with ragga-leaning rapper Roots Manuva, is a totally natural fit. The two are clearly kindred spirits, and Manuva's lithe toasting provides just the right contrast to Martin's grinding synth work. For the remixes, Martin makes some intriguing picks. Impressed by their epic 12-hour podcast earlier this year, he brought in out-techno OGs Autechre to redo "Skeng". A cool choice, but their brand of techy minimalism kind of saps the power out of the original. Hyperdub-affiliated newcomer Scratcha DVA, who turned heads with his wild "Natty/Ganja" 12", gives "Poison Dart" a UK funky overhaul, adding in the quick stabs of hollow bass that are inherent to the genre....full text |
| Residentadvisor |
| Mouth watering at the prospect of Ninja Tune XX but haven't had the cash for it yet? Hey, they understand. Ninja Tune's released a lot of box sets and retrospectives over the years, and they've always been generous about letting some of those sets' exclusives go out on singles and EPs—what's good for the artist is good for the franchise. On this EP by Kevin Martin's project The Bug, two of the four tracks come from the label's new monster box, and one—the hurtling "Tune In," with Roots Manuva—is here in its vocal version while the dub is on XX. And far from seeming like castoffs and leftovers, Infected is tight and vibrant, furthering the grimy roots-and-futurism of 2008's London Zoo. The two remixes here give that album's highlights a head-turning cleanse. Autechre's remix of "Skeng" takes an already Spartan track and makes it even more razor-sharp minimalist. The beat is so techy and tetchy that it seems to vibrate from within, like a neon light starting to fritz. It's total art music that kills on a system, one of the best remixes of the year. Scratcha DVA's relick of "Poison Dart" gives it the kind of champagne-spray fizz you'd expect, peppering up the snares and goosing the vocals with echo and the beat with old-fashioned analog FX....full text |
| Drownedinsound |
| The humour which emerged from the events of September 11, 2001 understandably did so some time after the fact, in the main. However, one of the greatest examples of morbid tastelessness I’ve ever seen took place that afternoon on the Popbitch messageboard, which was readable in those days. The joke centred on eyewitness reports of thousands of loose pieces of paper blowing in the wind post-attacks, and the suggestion that they were flyers promoting the new Victoria Beckham single – in other words, that 9/11 had been orchestrated by Virgin Records’ PR department. I recall this having learned that one especially notable element of anti-tuition fees demonstrators’ forcible occupation of Conservative HQ last Wednesday (at the time of writing) was a small but effective soundsystem, wheeled into the lobby blasting out ‘Skeng’ by The Bug. ‘Skeng’ appears, in remixed form, on The Bug’s Infected EP, released five days after the riots. Although it’s probably safe to assume that Big Dada did not hijack a day of political insurrection to promote their new single (you might recall how tricky it was to buy the Speech Debelle album in shops just after she won the Mercury Prize, because the label didn’t press enough copies), if it had been a publicity stunt it would probably be up for some kind of award in the near future. It’s vaguely tempting to take a stance of devil’s advocacy and suggest that a song about the cold brutality of modern-day gang violence, and its invariably fatal results, might not be the most apposite soundtrack to a procession of young people protesting the prospect of their parents having to pay £9,000 a year for their university education. On the other hand, it’s a total badman tune with a monster bassline, so two sides to every story and that....full text |
The Bug lyrics
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