‘For so many years, I wanted to destroy all song structure and just tear everything up. Now, I see it as more of a challenge to work within a structure, but make it sick,” laughs Welsh musician and producer Kevin Martin from his long-time home of London.

Though he’s now best known as Ninja Tune artist The Bug, Martin has a healthy history of creating adventurous sounds, having made music with diverse conspirators including outsider jazz band 16-17, left-field hip-hop heads Antipop Consortium and My Bloody Valentine founder Kevin Shields. Along with co-producer Justin Broadrick of Godflesh and Jesu fame, Martin also explored the realm of noisy, industrial-influenced hip-hop and dub through the 1990s under the names Techno Animal, Ice and God.

Ironically, given that Martin fell for the music of artists like Lee Scratch Perry and Adrian Sherwood’s On-U Sound roster because “dub sounded so alien and disorienting and just seemed to make music infinite instead of finite,” it is this passion that led him to write in a more structured manner.

From 2001 through 2004, Martin worked with UK dub veteran The Rootsman as ragga breakcore project Razor X. He crafted the rhythms, Rootsman recorded a capellas by people like Daddy Freddy and the template for Martin’s solo project The Bug was born. 2003’s Pressure album on Rephlex heralded his original dub sound.

 “It’s kind of funny,” muses Martin, “but people who aren’t familiar with my work before The Bug seem to think I’m just someone who jumped on dubstep. How I see it is that everything I’m doing at the moment is an absolute evolution. If you listen back to the first God album, there were dub tracks on there, there were huge grooves, there were three basslines on every track, a massive amount of percussion and huge effects. What we did to hip-hop with Techno Animal, I do to dancehall with The Bug. I don’t really see much of a difference in the methodology.”

That said, The Bug has been embraced by dubstep DJs and fans, with newer tunes like “Skeng,” featuring MCs Killa P and Flowdan and “Poison Dart,” with the Warrior Queen, receiving much support from the likes of influential producer and Hyperdub label owner Steve Goodman, a.k.a. Kode9. It was, in fact, Goodman who introduced Martin to South London’s burgeoning dubstep scene when he passed along an invite to his FWD club night.

“I was really into it,” Martin recalls. “It was like a recognition that these people were inspired and influenced by similar ideas as me though they were obviously younger and from a different background. For me, it was really intriguing to pick up on that sound.”

While there is a strong link between the music of The Bug and that of artists like Kode9, Burial and Skream, Martin tends to layer his futuristic dancehall more densely and works with MCs who offer socially conscious lyrics to accompany The Bug’s intense contrasts in sound.
 “A lot of people reviewing the new album, London Zoo, are dwelling on how intense and heavy it is, but I was really interested in extremes of beauty and filthiness. For me, there’s a heavily melodic core,” Martin emphasizes. “I wanted to make something that’s ultra intense, deep as hell and heavy. It’s a passionate record and I don’t see that as dark. It’s life, it’s real and it’s emotional.

 “Philosophically, I was pushing the MCs to talk about things that get them vexed and encouraging them to analyze and extrapolate on the fire in their bellies. That was crucial for me. All of the music I’ve liked most — hip-hop, reggae, post-punk, free jazz — had politics at their core, had a style, impact, soul and passion. When I think of things like What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye or It Takes a Nation of Millions by Public Enemy or Discharge Records, there was a fire that inspired you to think and act. Most music now feels like part of a huge pacification program.”

Not so with the many projects Martin will return to after touring his live show as The Bug. These include Ladybug (The Bug with female MCs including Nicolette, Ari Up, Cobra Killer and Warrior Queen), Cult of the 13th Hour (Martin and The Spaceape) and King Midas Sound (Martin with writer/vocalist Roger Robinson).

 “I like the idea of creeping around in underground areas and not feeling I have to invest everything into one project or one sound,” he chuckles.

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