The Bug

Kevin Martin is a pioneer in the dubstep scene. Maybe you don’t know, but he founded The Bug with DJ Vadim in 1996. They worked together on the album Tapping The Conversation. The Bug’s music draws influence from dancehall, noise, grime, and hip hop. More subdued influences would include dubstep and the dubtronica and broken techno.

Some hits:

Skeng

Featuring Killa P and Flow Dan from Roll Deep (the group of Wiley and Dizee Rascal) “Skeng” is surely the most succinct, no nonesense low-end rumble from Kevin Martin’s studio to date. The rhymes here are shorn of much of the rudebwoy.

Poison Dart

Featuring Warrior Queen. ‘Poison Dart’ is a monster of a tune, is currently one of the biggest dubplate bombs on the Dubstep scene.

More info:

The Bug is the main project for Kevin Martin. He has been behind a diverse range of projects, related to experimental ambient (EAR), space jazz (God), hip-hop (Ice), and electronic music (Techno Animal). He founded the Bug in 1996 for Tapping the Conversation, a heavy dub album (based on Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 film The Conversation) recorded for WordSound with ambient-breakbeat maestro DJ Vadim.

Five years later, the Bug returned as a mostly Martin project with Pressure, a record that wrecked dancehall conventions and featured vocal toasts from the Rootsman, Daddy Freddy, and Toastie Tailor.

God was a jazzcore group that was part of the grindcore and industrial rock scenes. Justin Broadrick, formerly of Napalm Death and later of Godflesh, eventually joined.

Ice was an industrial hip-hop group that collaborated with El-P and Blixa Bargeld, formed by guitarist Justin Broadrick and saxophonist/singer Kevin Martin.

Techno Animal was another industrial hip-hop group, similar to Ice, which eventually collaborated with Dälek, Vast Aire, and Anti-Pop Consortium.

Kevin Martin has been personally asked to remix Thom Yorke, Grace Jones, Einsturzende Neubauten (the band of Blixa Bargeld) and Primal Scream, and has compiled jazz & dub compilations. The new album “London Zoo” is the fruition of all these activities…

Links:
- The Bug on MySpace
- The Bug On Ninja Tune
- DJ Vadim page
- Flow Dan on MySpace
- Roll Deep on MySpace
- Techno Animal on MySpace

Tags: Blixa Bargeld, broken techno, collaborations, DJ Vadim, dubstep, dubtronica, El-P, experimental, God, grime, hip-hop, Ice, industrial hip-hop, innovative, jazzcore, Justin Broadrick, Kevin Martin, noise, pioneers, Pressure, ragga, raggacore, techno, Techno Animal, The Bug, Vast Aire