"the bug" -- what else?

I bought it cuz of Strongo.

What's the Ward 21 all about?

also check out Rhythm & Sound w/Tikiman. basic channel minimalist dub with an mc

both get a parental E warning for el-p content, just fyi.

(Sorry JaXoN)

I think you are probably better off with the Burial Mixes as dub, but it is dub that's nothing like the Bug, but is excellent.

no, it's not that at all (i wish it was). it's very much unlike his previous three albums which do have similarities to bc.

(Sorry JaXoN)

why r u sorry?

the 12" with cutty ranks is totally predictable and totally SLAMMING but sounds little like the album.

Also Jess is right the Gun Disease EP is currently the best Bug thing available (although there is some newer collection coming out on Rephlex which sounds like it might be quite nice, too.) I know next to nothing about German dancehall though (in fact I didn't know--and I can't imagine how it could be guessed--that any of the riddims fassy just mentioned weren't Jamaican in origin.)

This doesn't mean German dancehall isn't good (or bad or ugly or whatever) but it's one of those coincidences that will probably come back to haunt us (eg. who knew that when I spoke glowingly about Darqwan in '01 I was inadvertantly equating the best of 2-step with what would quickly become boring bludgeoning droning breaky dubstep crossover tedium??)

(although from the German dancehall stuff I've heard, calling it experimental is about as accurate as calling Bump & Flex experimental ie. it's kind of correct but only insofar as the *entire genre* of dancehall could be considered experimental (this ties into my thesis re Bump & Flex being the unintentional singular manifestation of 2-step's collectively morphing geist 98-01))

(crosspost with Alex in SF's last paragraph)

sterling are you saying these people are white or that people who like the bug shld check them?

recommending salt shaker to go with the bug seems a bit bizzaro disingenuous, but if youre drawing another better line wrt dancehall dislocations then i guess it's a thought yeah. i'm not sure i understand tho. but for good-bug-not-bug i'd heartily champ the new rat trap riddim, if that helps any. nor am i comfy with bug "classic example of all things fassy *wrongly* projects onto rupture - "hey i'm making dancehall all edgy" " (ps er do u really think that's all i meant when i criticized rupture?!), i think i'd leave it at him just having really bad bedroom headbanger gothmosh taste, he still sucks obv but that's not my point. tho perhaps that's just a backhanded way of saying i dont think k-mart is smart enough to be smug or whatever...

also again what's this about ward 21 being experimental?! yeah they tart up their riddims a bit but then so does elephant man, so do lots of mcs, and to much better effect i'd venture to argue. so are they experimental cos only half of their stuff comes off while everyone else's efforts are instant hotness (which then means it's Dancehall in General thats great and fab etc)

* with scare quotes no less

I love U Know How We Roll but apart from Sizzla's Rise To The Occasion it's the only actually-from-03 dancehall album I've been able to get a hold of so I'm not sure how it rates against efforts by Ele, Vybz, etc. I do get the sense though that they're rarely *the best* on any given riddim. I think they're tops on whichever riddim "Style" is on (Goldmine I think? There's a palpable inevitability to the excitement of their rapping on this that really grabs me but is I think quite unusual for them) and "Petrol" is one of those inspired one-offs (see Prima's formulation) where I don't actually want to hear any other takes on the riddim. But as groups go I tend to enjoy TOK's efforts more, both for individual rap/singing elements and for the way the tunes fit together. Maybe Ward 21 need to add a singjay (which would be instant death for their cred i suspect!).

The Bug sounds a lot like dancehall circa '01 to me but with distorted fxs where the string samples should be.

For some reason I feel the need to big up the MUDSLIDE riddim in this thread. I think people getting into dancehall via electronic music would love it (plus it's one of my favourites).

yeeah mudslide totally, so so fun

Prima - I can attest that Ward 21 *do* have inexplicable experi-mentalist cred; even no-nothing Aussie articles on dancehall (not including my own) seem to reference them as being the intelligent option!

oh shit i found it!!

All we really want is to be free
Opportunity, social mobility
We might not dress so formal
Nor speak so properly
But by the hook or by the crook
We've got to beat this poverty!

Will check out that Bounty Killa one when I get a chance.

i dont deny that about the bug, but then he isn't putting kelis accapellas over it either is he

haha! i don't agree, but that's a great summation him all the same.

Maybe I'm just dense but you guys *are* talking about "saltshaker" as in the Ying Yang Twinz, right? Or something else?

Just wanted to say hello, coz I found that discussion here in Google ;)!

Bless

The new album is really, really fucking good, the tracks with FlowDan on especially. It's kind of the perfect environment for his vocals - nice to see his verse on Bounce make a reappearance here.

Just noticed this thread is for everything that isn't the Bug. Ah well.

london zoo is very good, but i have yet been able to handle it all in one sitting.

it's dark and heavy but i don't think as forbidding or hard work as it's been made out to be. loving the flowdan and warrior queen tracks as expected but i think it's hard to beat tippa irie's performance on 'angry'

talking of warrior queen, check her cut on the heatwave's piano riddim, 'things change' <3

"prima fassy"

One of the all-time great usernames that.

'Skeng' comes up on my WMP list as 'Skene' which is sort of off-putting.

perhaps my problem is that Angry is just so good, the rest of the album falls off afterwards.
admitedly i do need to dedicate more time to this album

The new record is good, but it's not aggressive enough for me; I prefer the Killing Sound singles comp, billed to Razor X Productions (Kevin Martin w/the Rootsman).

One of the all-time great usernames that.

^^^this

I need to hear this but for me, over time, The Bug seems to have turned into something that's best experienced live - I've always had a total blast whenever him and Warrior Queen have played out

so weird, the first time i saw them live was at a house party for NYE 04/05, i think i drunkenly told warrior queen how amazing she was for about half an hour

what else should someone who likes king midas sound seek out of kevin martins? any of his 90s stuff? or any other ambient dub/reggae from other artists? KMS is really lovely.

There's some similar-ish stuff on Pressure (the Roger Robinson, Paul St Hilaire tunes obv.) Obviously Rhythm & Sound. The Pulshar is really good IMO.

KMS on some influences:
http://kingmidassound.blogspot.com/2009/11/texture-tone-and-grain.html

ta. would have thought massive attacks work with horace myself too but i guess thats obvious.

We published an interview with King Midas Sound (Kevin Martin, Roger Robinson and Hitomi) today and he plays down the Massive Attack comparison saying they were probably listening to the same albums as the Wild Bunch used to listen to when they were recording. Full interview here.

I know this probably constitutes spam but we've got a micromix of the album done by Kode 9 as well, which I thought may be of interest to hyperdub fans.

hes prob right, but it doesnt stop them sounding a bit similar (in a v good way).

"the difference between us and Tricky is that for one, Roger sings"

i think its more that hitomi has a presence like martina that create the tricky comparisons

http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4031&Itemid=98

Nice.

Anyone happen to have the King Midas Sound FACT mix archived...?

anyone like the new ep, infected? i dig the reworkings of the two songs from london zoo.

interesting interview of him (by dj/rupture) in some journal called bomb magazine.

i'm more interested in the adrian sherwood collaborations that are due out sometime.

Acid Ragga is pretty great yes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdWZqka5tqY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdWZqka5tqY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAaFUoiOM-Y

Is anyone at all repping for In Blue by The Bug ft. Dis Fig? It's been on my radar since the announcement (released last month), but I didn't listen/wasn't in the mood until I came across it again on Friday, while combing my Bandcamp wishlist for monochromatic album covers. Only listened to it once so far, but first impression was positive, if not exactly earthshattering. Gonna throw it on in a minute while I make lunch on a cold rainy Sunday, and try to form some more coherent impressions.

I also really vibed with his Dylan Carlson collab from 2017, Concrete Jungle, which seems to have gone unnoticed on ILM.

Yeah, I reviewed it a couple of weeks ago. I also wrote about the Dylan Carlson one.

I did a podcast interview with Martin this year. He's a great guy to talk to.

Good write-ups; I'll check out the podcast too.

I'm glad I'm not the only one hearing Basic Channel on In Blue!

no chat on the new one? It's big.

this release has proved to me i am no longer on the NT promo list.
though to be fair, i am not surprised.
just a strange feeling given that they were one of first labels to ever send me promos.

back on topic re album : yeah, what i have heard is indeed massive.
a definite step up from the middling 'angels and devils' album.

also, alongside the bug stuff, kevin has released a LOT in the last year.
the hardest working man in bass music ?

my eldest went to a thing a couple of years back cos Kevin was on the listings.
he managed to get a photo taken with him, and sent it to me just to piss me off.

i'm more interested in the adrian sherwood collaborations that are due out sometime.

― mark e

still nothing on this.
even within the on-u scene, there is nothing.
such a shame

The new album's great. Hearing him on various Bug projects has made me into a big fan of Flowdan. I've heard two of his own albums now and they're really good, especially 2019's Full Metal Jacket.

I enjoyed GOd and the Virgin label compilations that kevin martin curated a few years later but haven't really kept up with what he's done more recently.
So may need to catch up with his work.
Techno Animal were quite good too I think.

'People were no longer arrested for not being vaccinated, now they were just being terminated.'

I could do without this line.

*being terminated

this album is intense.
i f£cking love it.

It's heavy. "Fire" is right.

that dystopian voiceover bit on the intro sounded somewhat anti-vax or just plain bloody stupid and put me off listening further

so great. projecting some anti-vax bs onto this and thus not listening further is bloody stupid. jeezo!

Putting some corny intro with nonsense about executing people that refuse to be vaxxed is bs to me.

i choose to take it as an endorsement of executing anti-vaxxers, a highly sympathetic position, so i can enjoy the rest of the record

yeah that wouldn't be a too bad dystopia tbf!

I've probably wasted too much thought about this, but I don't see how anti-lockdown gels with anti-vaccine unless his idea is that the vaccination is an additional means to control the population, with like a microchip or something.

Honestly, it doesn't bug (ho ho) me that much as it's clearly an anti-authoritarian stance based on a near future scenario. If lockdowns are still going on three years from now, I'll be with Robinson. The world has caught up to the Martin/Broadrick's vision. 90s Techno Animal sounds as fresh as ever.

i didn't get that he was saying that at all but hey, i probably need my ears syringed. any anti-syringers can eff off.