The Bug to replace Kid Sister/A-Trak

We got word on Thursday that Kid Sister won’t be coming to Norway next week, and that A-Trak also will be staying home. The reason is that they’ve chosen to focus on recording Kid Sister’s new album instead of coming to play at the Øya Festival. This is sad news for all those who looked forward to their joint appearance on the Sjøsiden stage Friday Aug. 8, as well as A-Trak’s solo performance at Parkteateret. Our booking crew has worked hard to find a suitable replacement, but rest easy: they’ve found you The Bug feat. Warrior Queen and Flowdan.

THE BUG feat. WARRIOR QUEEN and FLOWDAN (Roll Deep) (UK)
The Bug’s music can be linked to dub, dancehall, noise, and hip hop. Behind the name is Kevin Martin, who started the project back in 1997. He has also been a member of bands like Pressure, God, Techno, Animal, and Ice (the three latter with Justin Broadrick from Godflesh). His musical resumé also includes cooperations with John Zorn, Blixa Bargeld, and Dälek. His latest album, ‘London Zoo’ (2008), is a real dance bomb and has received rave reviews from Pitchfork, Observer, Wire, and NME, among others. Martin claims to gather inspiration from e.g. Phillip K.Dick, David Lynch, Francis Bacon, Joel, Public Enemy, Wu-Tang, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Discharge, Swans, My Bloody Valentine, and Ennio Morricone. He will bring along two singers to the Medieval Park: Warrior Queen from Jamaica and Flowdan, a friend of Dizzy Rascal’s. Among the many words of praise for The Bug’s latest album, we’ve picked out the following excerpts:

“Better than anything else out this week by precisely 312%.”
- Guardian Guide

“A perfect soundtrack for a troubled and tiresome London, this is serious music for serious times.”
- Rock Sound 9/10

“The Bug communicates the ire and fire burning in an unjust world, which is so rarely acknowledged in contemporary music.”
- Knowledge

“Demands to be played over tower-block sized speaker-stacks. Righteous, violent, scary and brilliant work.”
- Mixmag 4/5

“Martin’s latest Bug album, London Zoo, is very much in keeping with that permutation, which stands out amidst the recent wave of dubstep in a way that makes Burial’s Untrue sound like Music for Airports.”
- Pitchfork 8.6/10

“Rarely has such talent been so effectively marshalled as on this third album by the Bug, a.k.a. veteran noise artisan Kevin Martin”
- Observer 5/5

“A set of timebomb digi-pulses and cranium-scraping skank, set against a backdrop of thrillingly dystopic futurism. Its beautiful, in a most gnarly fashion.”
- Plan B

“The spheres have never aligned in quite the way that they do on ‘London Zoo’. Hovers immaculate between beauty and fear.”
- Album of Issue – Wire

“’London Zoo’ is Boris Johnston’s worst nightmare, which makes this the sound of 2008, whether you feel it or not.”
- NME 8/10

“A perfect reflection of the capital, it’s important at a point when so much music feels factory-made that there are artists carving out their own individual sound.”
- Fact

The Bug on MySpace