THE BUG Fire (grey vinyl)
$69.95
Out of stock
British-born, Belgium-based musician and producer Kevin Martin has shape-shifted through disparate guises and genres – dancehall, experimental hip hop, industrial, hardcore techno – since the 1990s, with his projects packing a characteristically heavy punch. As The Bug, Martin’s bass-quaking rhythms are designed to test the hardiest dub sound systems, but his material is also expansive and atmospheric enough to make powerful listening, even when it’s just blowing up your headphones.
Fire – the fourth Bug album – has been three years in the making and Martin describes it as “punk as fuck” – as much influenced by the global lurch towards populism and rightwing politics, Brexit and the catastrophe of the Boris Johnson administration as it is by the COVID-19 pandemic. “People always talk about the darkness of my music but for me fire symbolises illumination,” he says. The lyrical weight comes from multigenerational MCs, including Roll Deep members Flowdan and Manga, most of whom have regularly collaborated with Martin’s other projects. Martin’s immense basslines and imaginative backdrops also lend these bleak expressions an invigorating energy (incidentally, Martin provides a “menacing beat” on Halsey’s new album). British-Trinidadian writer, musician and performer Roger Robinson’s reading of his poem The Missing, about the 2017 Grenfell tragedy, forms an unforgettably haunting endnote.
With its fiercest distillation yet of dub production, heavy dancehall riddims and overwhelming industrial noise, and featuring vocal contributions from an outstanding team of collaborators, Fire is one of the most arresting and danceable albums of 2021.
A1. The Fourth Day Feat. Roger Robinson
A2. Pressure Feat. Flowdan
A3. Demon Feat. Irah
A4. Vexed Feat. Moor Mother
B1. Clash Feat. Logan
B2. War Feat. Nazamba
B3. How Bout That Feat. Ffsytho
C1. Bang Feat. Manga Saint Hilare
C2. Hammer Feat. Flowdan
C3. Ganja Baby Feat. Daddy Freddy
C4. Fuck Off Feat. Logan
D1. Bomb Feat. Flowdan
D2. High Rise Feat. Manga Saint Hilare
D3. The Missing Feat. Roger Robinson