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Thursday, March 26, 2009

The Bug | London Zoo

Electronica

thebugLondon Zoo is a pulverizing work from the jump, an aptly named number called “Angry.”

The album is littered with one word titles with the same impact and focus. “Skene” (weapon).  “Insane.” “Fuckaz” (fuckers).  “Warning.” “Judgement.” Palpable dread alternates with righteous fury in passages that are physically impossible to ignore.

The Bug is Kevin Martin, a longtime dabbler on the more abrasive fronts of British electronic music, best known as half of Techno Animal.  His projects are notable for their uncommon coherence and lack of compomise.  As a producer, he’s all over the place, but always present (and noisy).

Martin was an early proponent of the dubstep scene, and London Zoo may be a high water mark of this moody, bass-driven genre.  The precision with which the musical violence here is delegated, however, lean harder on the pure dancehall influence of the last Bug album, 2003’s Pressure.

While that work was a classic of full body dancefloor assault, on London Zoo Martin is much more expressive with his toolbox.  A hand-picked assortment of guest vocalists complete the crushing gravity, bringing forth the best aspects of the British Jamaican heritage to rail lyrics/sermons from what sounds like hell itself.

Enraged, sinister, and clinically earth shattering, London Zoo is a terrifying (if club-ready) dispatch from a wicked world that cannot accept apathy and demands change.

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ABOUT THE WRITER
George Booker is writing this about himself in the third person. He was considering second person, maybe making this the "Bright Lights, Big City" of bios. He was looking into casting Micheal J. Fox in the forthcoming film adaptation, as the disabled actor would likely portray him with ample charm, sympathy, and fifty-something boyish handsomeness. Recently, however, Booker has realized that only Anne Hathaway or Chiwetel Ejiofor could really capture his essence. Late 20s, Norfolk raised music writer. Former DJ and production head for WVFS Tallahassee, former staff clerk at defunct Norfolk music stores DJ's and Relative Theory. Current Film Editor and Contributor to No Ripcord Magazine, contributed blurbs to Link and Port Folio Magazine.
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