The Bug - Angels & Devils

We need to talk about Kevin

huge amount of hype for this album. not heard it yet. gotta say i'm a bit hot and cold on him. some absolutely fantastic moments in the Bug discography (loved that first EP i bought with 'run the place red' on it', seeing him live circa 2004 was one of the best things i'd ever seen too) and the overall idea of ragga-noise really excites me, but for every amazing track there's one that just falls flat for me. London Zoo didn't have quite the wallop I was expecting and i prefer the first album more, despite a whole bunch of washy dub tracks that do literally nothing on that album.

is he a genius? or is he just someone who hit on a neat idea and pulled in some decent collaborators? i can't tell. i know very little about his other projects.

Haven't heard the new one, but I think generally that the Razor X stuff collected on Killing Sound probably his best work in this idiom (hard to compare it with his pre-Bug stuff but generally think best thing he's done is first Ice album which is a monster record). There is another thread on his and Broadrick's various projects somewhere. Not sure what qualifies as genius, but I think it's pretty cool that both of them 15-20 years on managed to separately to explore ideas (Broadrick with the shoegaze metal as Jesu/Martin with the mutant bass thing as the Bug) that if they are not prescient at least feel like they are of a piece with a trending sound. I always have time for them. That said based on what I've read of the new one I do kind of wish he'd do a collaboration with Flowdan rather than another mix and match of various vocalists.

i would have preferred if kevin and adrian sherwood had finished off their announced project.

first spin of new album : the gonjasufi track, save, is pretty fucking dreary.

still think the best thing he has done (that i have heard), is the bug dancehall remix he did for t.raumschmiere : rabaukendisko feat. ras bogle.

really like this on a couple of listens; it surprised me how pretty it is in places, and that first-half stuff is actually the best material here - not sure the MC tracks are as powerful as london zoo was (while still being pretty good). i like an artist who surprises me.

is he a genius? or is he just someone who hit on a neat idea and pulled in some decent collaborators?

what a very reductive and auteurist question to ask. most artists fall between those two caricatures.

yeah, there is a lot of hype about the new album, hence this thread i guess. listened to it 2 or 3 times, and though it's not totally amazed me, it's got some really neat stuff on it (mi lost, fuck you, the one). have always felt a bit ambivalent about his stuff too. a lot of the time it's this big battletank music - huge and imposing but maybe sometimes a bit predictable and likely outflanked by more mobile units - but still it's pretty fun to watch it rumble past belching filthy diesel fumes all over the place. new one has a bunch of smudgy moodpieces up front though (not too dissimilar to king midas sound), which i guess is the big difference to london zoo

Haven't heard this new one yet, but just read the Pitchfork review's complaints:

The problem is that Martin divides the album exactly, offering first six slow cuts—"angels", presumably—and then the ruffneck "devil" cuts. As a conceit, it fails, stultifying the album's flow and condescending to listeners regarding Martin's range: of course he's capable of slower, foggier productions, but did anyone think London Zoo needed more ambient passages?

Of course, slo-mo, waterlogged ephemera—be it dusty takes on R&B or traipsing down dub’s ever-expanding wormhole—is a pervasive trend in current British electronic music

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19742-the-bug-angels-devils/

of course he's capable of slower, foggier productions, but did anyone think London Zoo needed more ambient passages?

no, but did anyone just want london zoo redux?

Of course, slo-mo, waterlogged ephemera—be it dusty takes on R&B or traipsing down dub’s ever-expanding wormhole—is a pervasive trend in current British electronic music

tru but...this isn't that.

I've been a fan of Kevin Martin's going back to God. Loved a lot of Techno Animal and Ice. The early Bug singles were great, and as mentioned upthread, the Razor X Productions stuff gathered on Killing Sound is the absolute peak of his work in this area. I didn't like London Zoo or the King Midas Sound album very much, though; the KMS disc was just kind of woozy and boring, and LZ had too many collaborators and wasn't assaultive enough. I haven't heard this one yet, but I have the feeling I won't like it, because from what I've read it combines all those flaws: slow and boring in some parts, poorly chosen collaborators (seriously, fuck Death Grips) in others. I'd much rather hear him do an entire album with just Warrior Queen and Flowdan.

(seriously, fuck Death Grips) in others. I'd much rather hear him do an entire album with just Warrior Queen and Flowdan.

this is OTM.
all of the highlights of the new album are fronted by these two, so i totally concur with this statement.

think k martin fits death grips pretty well but the content of the song is straight horrid so i could've definitely done without it

doglatin if you have never heard God then you are more than behind the simple concept of "missing out" can explain. One of my favourite bands Britain has ever produced and some of my best ever live memories.

I should add that I think you would like them, try Possession for starters which I think is the most 'you' album.

Yeah, not all of God's albums are essential, but Possession and The Anatomy of Addiction totally are.

yeah the death grips track is worthless

just stopping in to say how much I love Warrior Queen, I'll definitely check this out

I really like the Appeal to Human Greed God remix record.

not heard the new one, but would like him to work with maybe better MCs - do like flowdan but prefer him on grime as opposed to dubstep/dark goth dance stuff where i think he doesnt sound totally comfortable or like he is really all that well suited, its like hes exaggerating his own heaviness - but my favourite KM stuff apart from some of his warrior queen stuff (there was a track they released on soul jazz which was incredible) is the king midas sound stuff. some of the album was a bit trip hop mk2, but waiting for you and meltdown are two of the best things hes ever done.

not that i have a problem with trip hop, just that i expected a bit more than what sounded very MA and tricky influenced from KM...

yeah, i just don't have much time for the Bug's more subdued side generally - it's crude of me to say, but just give me the big nasty stormers and i'll be happy.

I caught the Bug & Flowdan over a huge Funktion 1 rig at Soundwave festival this summer and I realised that almost all Bug tracks require a massive amount of volume to get the effect he's aiming for. Tracks that I had regarded as plodding and tame at home listening volume took on a whole physical aspect at trouser-flapping volume. Maybe I should listen at home in front of a fan or something.

KM is great to spectate on Facebook though. Almost every week he has a rant about a venue's soundman for not allowing him to red-line thir PA system until it blows up - oblivious to how bad a dub siren sounds at 120dB on a provincial rig with 20 year old subs.

I agree with Mark E's comment about the dancehall mix being his best output - the best time I've seen him DJ was at a Subloaded in Corsica Studios a few years when he was playing dancehall all night in room 2 b2b with Loefah. I wish he did that more often, it was packed and eye-shakingly loud and both of them were playing some fierce tunes.

The Flow Dan tracks are the best ones by far from the Devils half. Don't know what our Kev was thinking when he got Manga on board

The One is an absolute beast, just as good as Skeng, Jah War or Poison Dart

the one is the track that sounds like an apache helicopter hovering above yr head right?

Apparently there were some pressing issues and Ninja Tune are offering a refund on vinyls

http://ninjatune.net/article/2014/sep/01/the-bug-angels-and-devils-lp-pressing#.VARisWS2_fW

My copy skips on Fuck You but I thought that was because I needed a new needle

New EP coming as well:

The Bug – Exit
(Ninja Tune – October 7th)
Tracklist:
A1. Void feat. Liz Harris
A2. Void Version
B3. Black Wasp feat. Liz Harris
B4. Black Version
C5. Function feat. Manga
D6. Blaow feat. Daddy Freddy

yeah, there is a lot of hype about the new album, hence this thread i guess.

in what circles is this getting a lot of hype?

The Quietus had a Kevin Martin week to tie in with the launch, iirc FACT changed their masthead to use the same font as the album, that sort of thing. Seemed like an event album in that corner of the internet. Beyond that, yeah I'm not sure...

that makes sense, i haven't heard anyone mention it over in U.S. electronic nerd land.

I'd been saving this album for grey and miserable weather and I'm really glad I did because a lot of it sounds fucking amazing. I love how he never uses a generic bass sound when a multi-textured one will do, I love the effect of so many of the basslines changing as they get lower and lower. Also, Function is just astonishing, that plague of hi-hats noise towards the end is unlike anything else I've heard.

the guy is a post of bass. the album is really good. manga is an odd choice, but i dont mind him too much. flowdan sounds increasingly hammy and like he is about to burst out laughing at several points - forcing him to sound angry/deep/dark isnt a good idea. that line about having to like it or lump it makes me LOL every time i hear it. kevin martin should seriously consider working with badness, riko or gods gift maybe, rather than flowdan.

*POET, not post

loving the earth collab 12"

would love them to make a whole album.

miss red did a mixtape, production from the bug, evian christ etc. it's really good

http://www.miss-red.com/

will check it out

the sleng teng riddim variation thing the bug just released, from the couple tracks i heard, is scrubbed-out and nasty in a few ways that i like

the metadata in the download is a total mess.

the tracks are a thrilling mess!

couldn't find a more generic bug thread, so here's a new thing, it's pretty amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI0ii_02frY

going to see The Bug next month, in a venue that should respect his needs for bass and volume :)

I got a YouTube ad for Burial Services - Start Your Funeral Plan Today when I clicked play on that

Sick tune

mh, are you referring to Unsound? so stoked for that.

yup, haven't really mentioned around here that I'm going to be in Toronto

Check out this two hour Fact mix, featuring a bunch of his own productions

http://www.factmag.com/2018/09/25/the-bug-presents-pressure-fact-mix/

It's really good. Miss Red is even more effective here than her album.

Has anyone heard his collab with Dis Fig, In Blue?

Yeah, I liked it a lot. (Her album from last year is very good, too.)

Sweet, more stuff to dig into.

Good write-up Phil! I'm intruiged.