Albums
Filthy - EP
2013
Release Date: 2013
By Nate Patrin
Reviewed August 12, 2013
The UK producer Kevin Martin's teaser to Angels & Devils, his first LP as the Bug since 2008's excellent London Zoo, is a five-song EP that features guest spots from Danny Brown, Kiki Hitomi, Flowdan, and Daddy Freddy.
This isn't the same musical landscape that Kevin Martin left a crater in when he released London Zoo as the Bug five years ago. Even leaving aside every radical mutation and crossover blowup that's splintered off from the dancehall, grime, and dubstep scenes that ran through the album's veins, Martin himself has proven to be just as hard to pin down. The eerie, stripped-down ghost-dub King Midas Sound evolved from side project to remixers' platform to ongoing concern (don't sleep on the “Aroo” single). Kiki Hitomi, the wraithlike vocalist who's served as a regular collaborator with Martin across multiple projects since 2009, teamed up with him to explore heavier digital dub styles as Black Chow. And the last time anything was released under the Bug name proper, it was a series of 7” records on Martin's aptly-named Acid Ragga subsidiary label late last year that were abrasively confrontational in the best way, stuff that sounds like a future path few have successfully caught on to yet. Familiar comfort is not what you should expect out of him.