By his own accounts, his Hackney gaff isn’t located in the most salubrious of areas. As the environment you live in affects the music you make, this London Zoo houses some dark creatures in the gloomy recesses.

Don’t let me put you off as for all its dark ambience of deep bass dubstep, The Bug (aka Kevin Martin) holds onto his ragga and dancehall background. And the album gets off to a cracking start with the latest single ‘Angry’ with reggae legend Tippa Irie. Irie has been going over 20+ years and this track shows he’s still got a fire inside; much like Tricky’s new single ‘Council Estate’. The b-side, ‘Ganja’ is not on the album but definitely is worth a purchase.

Talking of singles, Ninja Tune released ‘Poison Dart’ and ‘Jah War’ last year (and featured Mary Anne Hobbs presents The Warrior Dubz) that were both big tunes so this album has been eagerly anticipated for ages. And better than that, it matches up to those expectations. Apart from Tippa, tracks feature the vocal talents of “Killer Queen”, Warrior Queen (she of the all-time Sunship classic, ‘Almighty Father’) and one of our favourite wordsmiths, Roger Robinson. Roger features on one of the downtempo tracks ‘You & Me’ that’s followed by an instrumental and both have such an electronic erieness it reminds me of the dark side of Amon Tobin’s ‘Lighthouse’.

The killer track ‘Skeng’ also slipped out on a 12” on Hyperdub (Kode9’s label) and features some great atmospheric lyrics Flowdan and Killa P. On the vocal side, Ricky Ranking makes the most appearances. There’s a brilliant bit on ‘Murder We’ when the MC’s introduction ends with “big tune Kevin!” It sort of catches you off guard so as the subject matter is far more serious. No doubt Ricky’s attitude is what happens when you work a lot with Roots Manuva; especially on bitter sweet-gloomy ‘Judgement’. Also see, ‘Insane’; it’s mad world.

Flowdan picks up the pace on ‘Warning’ with is loud and dark apart from a brave half-time break and another dubstep veteran, Spaceape gets is out of his system with ‘Fuckaz’. These are tracks to bust ya bass bins and alienate your neighbours.

Ninja Tune/Big Dada have long had a foot in the underground hybrid hip hop, ragga, dancehall (Lotek Hi-Fi spring to mind, even Infinite Livez and New Flesh are on the boarders) and for those that are not quite ready for a whole album from Benga or Skream, this album has more than enough variation. Not only that, it’s got balls with something to say; in that way, it reminds me of the 2-tone period.

The Bug certain follows his own non-aligned trajectories whether it be free jazz, ambient or remixes for Grace Jones or Thom York but London Zoo is where he’s at right now. And the judgement is that it’s a bloody good place to be, even if it is a bit scary times.

Reviewed: The Bug - London Zoo (Ninja Tune) Cat. No. ZENCD 132 Release date: 7th July 2008
Tracklisting:
1 Angry featuring Tippa Irie (3:37)
2 Murder We featuring Ricky Ranking (3:53)
3 Skeng featuring Flowdan & Killa P (4:39)
4 Too Much Pain featuring Ricky Ranking & Aya (3:56)
5 Insane featuring Warrior Queen (3:29)
6 Jah War featuring Flowdan (3:00)
7 Fuckaz featuring Space Ape (5:26)
8 You And Me featuring Roger Robinson (4:12)
9 Freak Freak (5:00)
10 Warning featuring Flowdan (3:51)
11 Poison Dart featuring Warrior Queen (6:14)
12 Judgement featuring Ricky Ranking
13 Hidden Track

Links:
www.myspace.com/thebuguk
www.bigdada.com
www.ninjatune.net
The Stool Pigeon #17 Summer 2008 Freak Colony by Cyrus Shahrad
www.hyperdub.net
www.kode9.com
London Zoo [The one in Regent’s Park]