Kevin 'The Bug' Martin Strikes Gold With King Midas Sound

Kevin Martin knows bass. For two decades he's been at the forefront of dub-inspired, confrontational grooves and has won much acclaim for his work in dubstep as The Bug. Martin's performance at Montreal's MUTEK Festival on June 4 marks the North American premiere of one of his latest creations, King Midas Sound. It's a typically reggae-soaked bottom-end experience, but featuring a dreamier atmosphere and sweet falsetto vocals.

"I wanted people to know me as something other than just aggro, which is how I've been increasingly labeled as The Bug," says Martin. "And for me Midas was a way to overcome my own prejudices about song structures and melodies, which I'd had for a long, long time. It was only with 'London Zoo' [The Bug's last album on Ninja Tune] that I started to pervert conventional song structures with technology. With Midas it's been very challenging to blend extremely quiet vocals with extremely loud music."

The intimacy of the album has been difficult to translate live, and the unit -- also composed of vocalists Roger Robinson and Hitomi -- are breaking new ground in such circumstances.

"I wanted to make a record you could listen to after you've come home from the club, or you're with your lady and you want to get close," says Martin. "For me, the album is an amazing home listening experience, but if I heard that stuff live, if I'm not enjoying the right environment, I might be a bit bored. We're trying to figure out how to operate in the live arena but at the same time stay true to the record. We're incorporating more and more live instruments -- Roger is adding guitar and Hitomi and me are adding synths. We're learning on the hoof -- we only started playing live this year. Show by show, we've ended up rewriting the set. It's a bit surprising, but ultimately it's exciting."


If you're anywhere within striking distance of Montreal it'd be worth your while to check out King Midas Sound's set, because Martin isn't a fan of live recordings to capture the new sound the project has developed. However, this new inspiration will be channeled into a torrent of studio work. The collaborations and remixes read like a who's who of the outer reaches of the dub universe.

"We're remixing an Echospace project, in which we put Roger and Hitomi's vocals on top of the remix. There's going to be a [King Midas] remix album later this year with Ras G, Mala from Digital Mysticz, Prefuse 73, Nite Jewel, Gang Gang Dance and Kode 9."

As for Martin's other projects, he's working on new releases for the Bug, a dub album with legendary British producer Adrian Sherwood, and remixing Public Enemy, the Clash and the Beastie Boys. All this activity has earned him next month's cover of Britain's bible for cutting edge music, The Wire.

But Martin's focus is firmly on the MUTEK gig and the performances throughout the summer. He's encouraged that the public seems to appreciate this marked change in direction. "I think all of the sudden people are understanding what we're trying to do with Midas, cause we're being booked on bills that are appropriate. When we first started gigging we were worried that we'd be stuck in the middle of a night full of jump-up dubstep," he explains, avidly looking forward to such gigs as Rome alongside two generations of abstract American poets, Gil Scott Heron and Gonjasufi.

"We're challenging ourselves and the audience -- it's not an easy night's listen."