The Bug
Angels & Devils
Reviewed by: Ari Roth
Kevin Martin is obsessed with sound. More than any particular musical or stylistic touchstone, his career thus far has been characterized by a visceral fascination with the sheer physical properties of extreme sound – particularly sub bass. He’s drawn to the genres and musical traditions most concerned with sound as a physical entity – particularly the Jamaican/British soundsystem culture that birthed dancehall and grime, and the lingering impact of extreme noise and experimental post-punk of the 70s and 80s. His last album, 2008’s London Zoo, perfected a dense, claustrophobic, hyperaggressive dubstep-grime fusion featuring a host of London MCs at the top of their game, spitting over some of Martin’s heaviest bassweight opuses to date.
Following that landmark release, he was faced with the conundrum of where to go next. He pursued his shoegaze-informed King Midas Sound project to great acclaim, but there was still the nagging question of the Bug’s next release. After an EP, last year’s Filthy, Martin returns with Angels & Devils, an album divided between atmospheric, delicately textured pieces on one side, and murderous, soundsystem-annihilating tracks on the other. One could argue that this division dilutes the impact of both elements, never giving the full time deserved to either “mode” the Bug explores here, but ultimately it’s the smartest way forward for one of dance music’s most fascinating figures, yielding some of his best-ever music in the process.
Angels & Devils opens with “Void”, which features Liz Harris, best known for her work under the Grouper moniker. The two artists seem to have nearly nothing to do with one another – Grouper makes downcast, decayed drone music, full of heartbreaking melody and fathomless depths of enveloping noise, and the Bug makes music that mostly eschews melody in favor of rhythm, focused on raw aggression instead of Grouper’s lulling dreamscape. And yet, the collaboration is both intriguing and oddly intuitive: both artists make music that deals with the body, with the physical aspect of sound and its impact on our state of being. The track’s dubbed-out low end and spectral vocals reminds me a little of another 2014 highlight, HTRK’s Psychic 9 to 5 Club. Still, there is something menacing going on here, a hint of hell at the gates of heaven. Martin can’t resist imbuing even the most placid songs on Angels & Devils with a little grime, an unsettling element to keep listeners from drifting off entirely.
“Fall” pairs a “Sleng Teng”-style bassline with minimal percussion, as copeland (formerly of shadowy avant-garde duo Hype Williams) floats uneasily overtop. “Ascension” has a suffocating sub bass that dominates the song, its restrained rhythm track only heightening the tension at play. Israeli MC Miss Red features on “Mi Loss”, providing the album’s first instance of traditional dancehall toasting on the album, while the instrumental still swirls and bubbles with atmospheric restraint. “Pandi” is little more than a dark church organ progression and a bottomless bass pulse, and by the time the ghostly creep of the Gonjasufi-featuring “Save Me” comes along, my heart is in my throat, preparing for the onslaught that is about to inevitably arrive.
It’s odd, then, that the album’s weakest point comes where it should logically climax. “The One” is a fine track, all shivering snares and dancehall kicks, with Flowdan delivering some solid verses that reference the counting motif on the duo’s biggest hit to date, the earth-shattering, cold-blooded and utterly heartless “Skeng” from London Zoo. Perhaps this impossibly high standard is to blame, but the track nonetheless feels a little insubstantial, especially as the opening track for what should be a bloody-minded, hellish assault. “Function” takes things up a notch, with Manga’s catharsis raging over an anthemic synth line, but it’s in the album’s last third that it really explodes, showcasing four of the most deliciously hateful, hardcore tracks of the Bug’s career.
I was initially skeptical of the news that the Bug was enlisting the (now defunct) cult noise rap act Death Grips for his new record. I’ve always found the band underwhelming, their anti-everything posturing somewhat hollow and their music secondary to the media controversies that accompanied each new release. Here, however, bellowing rapper MC Ride has found his perfect foil. “Fuck A Bitch”, their collaborative track, absolutely slays. A rampaging bassline and thunderous drums wreak havoc across the soundscape, and Ride blasts his way forward by sheer blunt force, while still finding ways to twist and vary his flow around the beat so that it never becomes predictable. It reminds me of nothing so much as Tempa T’s epochal 2009 grime smash “Next Hype”, in all its absurdly destructive glory. Flowdan again returns for “Fat Mac”, and this time the results are infinitely better, resulting in by far the album’s greatest track. It takes the opposite tactic as the previous song, riding on a seething, terrifying bass growl, stark drums, and – no kidding – doom metal guitars, as Flowdan’s ultra-deep voice intones overtop, sending shivers of dread down the spine. Like Flowdan, Warrior Queen has big shoes to fill, as her feature on London Zoo’s “Poison Dart” was, for many, that album’s standout moment. She follows through admirably on “Fuck You” riding a churning, inhospitable and bleak Bug production like she was born to do it, channeling her rage with just enough restraint on the verses that the chorus hits that much harder. Album closer “Dirty” is the only track held over from Filthy, and it still sounds great here. True to its title, the final Flowdan feature rolls endlessly forward like a bulldozer, caked in muck and lurching with low end.
Angels & Devils does not supplant London Zoo as the Bug’s definitive release, and the latter record will undoubtably remain a classic for decades into the future, perfectly encapsulating its particular moment in music history. Rather, Angels & Devils is the sound of a brilliant producer resolving to push forward, both refining his sound and moving into electrifying new territory. From here, it’s anyone’s guess where he might go.
Rating: 
