The Bug⤬

The Bug's signature apocalyptic dancehall production style was forged at in London at the start of the millennium via collaborations with UK dub veteran The Rootsman and MCs including Daddy Freddy, Toastie Taylor and Paul St Hillaire, and through his involvement in the nascent dub step scene, resulting in key releases on Razor X, Hyperdub and Rephlex around this time.

These connections became the starting point for seminal album London Zoo (Ninja Tune, 2008), featuring vocalists Warrior Queen and Flowdan, which channelled London sound-system culture and multi-cultural meltdown to create a unique detonation of dancehall, grime, hip-hop, and noise. This was followed six years later by epic utopian/dystopian concept album Angels & Devils (Ninja Tune, 2014).

The first new non-collaborative full-length album under The Bug moniker for seven years could not be better timed, or more needed: ‘Fire’ is fourteen tracks that immolate the synapses, flail the body, that cinematically take you from arcing evocations of a bleak lockdowned city-scape to swooping deep-focus close-ups of Martin and his collaborator’s psyches at breaking point.

On stage he remains a force to be reckoned with, whether calling on an arsenal of MCs including Miss Red, Flowdan, Lady Chann and Manga Saint Hilaire to bring the noise, as a 7” selector, or with his increasingly deep instrumental club sets that join the dots between mutant strains of dancehall, acid ragga and grime.