The Bug and King Midas Sound are both projects of Londoner Kevin Martin, who's work also with God, Techno Animal, Ice, Razor X and Curse of the Golden Vampire spans genres as diverse as reggae, grindcore, dub, techno, hip-hop, jazz, industrial and noise. Despite the wide array of influences, there is a theme of anger, darkness and sonic exploration throughout, and refreshingly the anger is often targeted outwards al la Public Enemy ('anger is an energy' - John Lydon), and the music never naval gazes or seems self pitying. This must take tremendous will considering the darkness at the heart of Kevin Martin's vision.
The Bug released Pressure LP in 2003, which was influential in the nascent Dubstep scene, Martin went on to co-host a London club with dubstepper Loefah. London Zoo built on Pressure's underground success by being more eclectic in the choice of vocalists, ragga and Grime vocals fill the LP with potential club bangers (albeit a pretty ruffneck club). Veteran UK dancehall DJ Tippa Irie contributes 'Angry', which suggests a industrialised Scare Dem Posse. 'Murder We' contains righteous but furious lyrical ragga backed by a production sounding like a sped up P.S.K. (Schooley D), or El-P filtered through the On-U-Sound classic 90's era. Grime MC Flowdan from Roll Deep, voices two massive tunes, Skeng (possibly the best single of 2008) and Jah War, that drop Flowdan deep into a heavy dubstep perfectly suited to his stentorian rhyme flow. Warrior Queen supplies another two headshots, with 'Insane' being literally quite mad, as it accuses all life (and possibly inanimate objects), including herself of not being the full ticket and updating The Pop Group for 2008. Finally Spaceape, best known for his rockstone dub poetry with Kode 9, delivers 'Fuckaz', continuing the rampant violence and aggression of the LP with the best use of swearing in a ragga tune since Goofy's 'Too Much Fuckery Agwan', now that you have to hear.
The following year brought King Midas Sound, a duo with Roger Robinson, a reggae vocalist Martin worked with on Pressure. Robinson supplies dub poetry on Pressure, but in Midas he sings in a hushed, wary tone (apparently heard accidentally by Martin off mic). Waiting For You can be seen as a negative image of London Zoo, with the energy and anger zapped or burnout, leaving a soundclash of zombies, or the sound of Ghost Town excavated post nuclear disaster, reels deteriorated by radiation. The whole LP uses the Burial/Bladerunner style, persistent storm effect. Nyabinji drums and fog horn bass add to the heavy mood, as Robinsons voice sounds sweet and vulnerable, mostly voicing lovelorn lyrical conceits, most reminiscent of Keith Hudson, another atypical reggae vocalist who sounded out of time and place when singing. The centerpiece is 'Earth A Killya', the only authoritative moment, voicing environmentally conscious mantras, and connecting with ancestral spiritual beliefs.
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