Kevin Martin aka The Bug interview: “They’re just tyrannical floor weapons”
We catch The Bug
To be involved in one of the year’s best albums is a privilege that a mere handful of producers manage to achieve every 12 months. Looking back on 2024 and realising that Kevin Martin aka The Bug has had a signficant hand in the creation of no less than four of the blighters, well, we have to take our hat off to the fella.
It was Martin who encouraged Stuttgart-based producer Michael Fieldler to make an album for his Pressure label under the name Ghost Dubs. The results may have diverged from the plan somewhat – “I actually asked him to do a completely different type of album,” confesses Martin, “but he delivered what he delivered and it’s great” – but the album (Damaged) quickly turned into one of the underground’s biggest smashes. Since its arrival in mid-August, it’s already been repressed mutiple times.
Its appeal? Like the first time Martin heard Burial – a sometime contriubtor to the Pressure label too – he knew it had cross genre appeal.
“When he delivered it we listened to it and I said ‘you know, if you’re lucky, this could cut across various different areas. This could really touch people who are into ambient, dub, electronica… and I think it has. Quality is quality, and the Ghost Dubs album is quality, just like Burial is.”
“I want to like more dub techno than I do – when I hear it, it just seems formulaic and dull. The Ghost Dubs record had much more atmosphere and flavour and depth. There was movement – it didn’t just stay in one copyist area. It was just a joy to put it out.”
If – and the record buying public seems to have confirmed it is so – Damaged managed to both cut across numerous genre audiences and rip up the tired and over tested dub techno template, then you won’t need three guesses to establish where he learnt those tricks. Aside from the fact he’s collaborated with many artists, from punk rebels Sleaford Mods to Killa P and Flowdan (who voiced his ‘Skaneg’ anthem), just look at the output of Martin this year alone.
First there was the physical release, back in May, of an album of creeping, spooked out downtempo and ambient work inspired by an Amy Winehouse documentary that reduced Martin to tears when he saw it, called Black, Then in July there was Disconnect, containing six tracks of static-filled, super slow motion grooves made in collaboration with Kenyan-born, Berlin-based ambient artist KMRU.
Anyone expecting a similarly horizontal sonic ride with The Bug’s latest album, Machine, however, is in for quite the rude awkening. These are fearsome, raw future dub tracks with the kind of punky, disorientating sonics that Bug afficiandos will know from much celebrated former albums like London Zoo and Juno Daily’s album of the year in 2021, Fire.
There’s one big difference this time round, namely the absence of the MCs that were such a distinctive part of those albums, the first time, arguably, that the leftfield, experimental end of electronica hooked up with the heroes of grime and dancehall. It’s a situation rooted in the roots of the tracks on Machine, as Martin explains.
“They were just tracks to drop at Pressure parties,” he says, talking about the Berlin label parties he stages regularly, now travelling from his latest home, Belgium, “and live shows, without compromise or leaving space for vocalists. They’re just tyrannical floor weapons!”
“In a way, I think my vision for this was really, futuristic dub music. Because so much dub music I hear isn’t futuristic – it sounds retro. So much dub music is safe and so much dub music sounds like a copy of 1970s music as well. And trust me, I’m always on the look out.
“With the Machine series, I had a few strategies I wanted to work with. The first thing was that I knew I wanted a series of EPs that would become an album, in the hope there was a consistency of sound that would create a narrative. I remember, on at least two occasions I was finishing the EP on the morning of the Pressure night and then sending it via email to the guy in Belgium – he’s a friend of mine, called Frederic – to master it for that evening, Just the buzz of being able to do that was amazing.
“You don’t know if people are going to connect with it, you don’t know if anyone’s going to give a fuck. And this music, it is challenging. It’s not there to be background – it’s foreground.”
Martin recalls his love of the musical shock he got when he first encountered dub sound systems in London after getting into hardcore dub albums as a teenager in Weymouth, Dorset. Like a junkie trying to recreate that first glorious hit – he goes back to those moments to help him with full on assault on the senses that is The Bug.
“I can fondly remember the first dub sessions I went to and remember being absolutely blown away sonically and musically as well of course. But at the same time, physically destroyed. It became a drug. I was looking for the same impact with these tracks. But also to try and articulate a new path. When I first heard dub it sounded alien. It sounded like someone had taken a jigsaw puzzle and thrown it in the air and were just seeing how it landed.”
Working without MCs this time was also down to more practical concerns, both physical
“I’m a complete gear slut. My studio’s like a spaceship. There’s only just about space for me! When I was in London there was space for MCs to come in and hang out. Now (in Belgium) there’s no room for anyone. It’s extremely antisocial and continues my absolute lust for equipment and new sounds and new sonics. But it’s important for me not to just experiment for experiment’s sake – it’s how to make a craft of it. Texture and tonality are right at the top for me with these tracks.
“It was liberating because I didn’t have to compromise anything in the sound spectrum to make room for the vocals. I loved the idea that this was a solo instrumental album as The Bug. Because, it gave me room to move but also, on a practical level, the way shows are at the moment, it gives promoters another chance to book me. Shows with MCs and a soundman, all my gear and the rider and everything, they’re not cheap. This is another way of booking me.”
As a result, audiences across Europe most recently been treated to the fearsome experience that is The Bug In Dub, with Martin playing extended sets and truly developing his sound system warfare to truly consciousness-crushing levels of sophistication and sheer brutality. There’s no ban on shows with MCs – Flowdan guested with him last weekend when Four Tet handpicked The Bug to play his massive, personally curated extravaganaza at North London warehouse superclub Drumsheds – simply a new way in which to immerse yourself in this unique sound.
As for Martin himself, he’s clearly really enjoying it. “I always said DJ sets should never be longer than an hour,” he laughs, “but having that space and that time to stretch, it’s really great.”