Two From The Bug

In a series of post stretching back several weeks (the first one is here), I wrote about Kevin Martin's epochal compilation "Jazz Satellites Vol. 1 - Electrification'. Kevin Martin is now best known for his dubstep and dancehall projects King Midas Sound and The Bug, but he has been involved in a plethora of bands: Techno Animal, God, Ice, The Sidewinder, Curse of the Golden Vampire, Experimental Audio Research and 16/17. Many of these band were collaborations with Justin Broadrick (Napalm Death, Fall of Because, Godflesh, Jesu) - here is an excellent article on the cooperative work of these two great musicians.

Sadly, Jazz has evaporated from Martin's music in recent years - the last Jazz-influenced album being the first The Bug album: 1997's "Tapping The Conversation". Why Martin abandoned Jazz isn't quite clear from the interviews I found on the internet.

An interview with The Bug perhaps provides some clues:

"I guess the first thing that I was really involved in was a band called God, which ended up being maybe twelve people, or maybe more. My idea when I formed the band was to create really physical music that was very loud; volume was very much a part of the equation. But as it went on what I wanted to do was mix free jazz with noise rock so basically I just kept inviting more and more people in to get closer and closer to that idea and the last show we did I had two drummers, a percussionist, two bass players, a double bass player, two guitarists, three saxophone players and a group of African drummers as well. All of it was amplified, and all going through effects so it was really psychedelic, incredibly loud and incredibly physical. (...)

For me I’m obsessed with sound, my whole life’s been about music basically, my father and grandfather were musicians so for me its in my blood anyway and from that point on it was all about the studio because when you're in a band that size, you have to make compromises, you cant really use the studio, particularly with jazz players, they’re really fussy about how you mix them, they want to be pure and I wasn’t really in to that."

I think it is sad that Jazz is no more in Martin's music. Though the music is too shuddering and juddering to suggest a architectural taste for authority, I miss the Free (as in Free Jazz) in his post-God and post-Ice work a little. Nevertheless, I do really appreciate the sounds he is producing now. Here are two YouTube videos of his recent work.


The Bug feat. Warrior Queen: "Aktion Pak"







The Bug feat. Warrior Queen: "Poison Dart"