London Zoo - The Bug
London Zoo Image
  • Summary: The third album for the artist/music producer Kevin Martin as The Bug.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. London Zoo provides the perfect showcase for its colourful menagerie of MCs and singers. And the Bug's no-nonsense clank and grind production fosters a rare intensity of focus on this album's higher purpose, which is to take the eloquence of Linton Kwesi Johnson and Michael Smith's Eighties dub-poetry, and blast it into digital hyperspace.
  2. Considering the host of absolutely killer tracks, London Zoo might just be Kevin Martin's finest album, which is astounding considering the man has been making music for two decades.
  3. The cumulative effect--somewhere around being lifted into the heavens by sunrays--is at odds with the continuous black clouds that come before. Yet it's a necessary chink of light to conclude a journey so oppressive you may just forget to breathe through its duration.

See all 10 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 32
  2. Negative: 11 out of 32
  1. 10
    An absolute masterpiece. The songs are innovative and interesting, but most of all, they contain a whole f**kload of energy. And I mean ALL of them. Some, like "Angry", are energizing in just a plain agressive, let-it-all-out style, while others, like "Skeng" or "Poison Dart" (which is, by the way, one of the very few true diamonds in this music style, in my opinion), are sophisticated and complicated compositions, not only appealing to the wild parts of our natures, but also the more civilized ones. And, of course, if you want to upset your neighbours just enough to move to a different country, buy yourself a decent sub to go with the record. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. TImA
    5
    I am a big fan of Ninja Tunes (the label this was released on) and have an incredibly broad taste in music so consider myself open minded to most stuff. I am also from London and therefore not unfamiliar with the style of vocals that are used here. That all said however this album is horrendously over rated where the critics got the ratings from I will never know. It is essentially some decent (and only decent) dub-step style tracks with reggae/Rasta vocals over it. The vocals do not work at all – this is not due to the style not meshing it is due to the fact that they are poorly delivered and ill conceived. Beware this album someone somewhere seems to have confused new/original with just doing something that’s been done before so badly that you can’t even recognize what it’s imitating. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. Tyler
    3
    It's incredibly annoying.
    • 1 of 1 users said yes

See all 32 User Reviews

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