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CYNE's Top 10
Yair Etziony's Top 10

Albums
2tall
Abbasi Brothers
Aerial
Argy
Austere
Bailleau & Williams
Beequeen
Black Devil Disco Club
Matt Borghi
The Bug
Celer
Leighton Craig
CYNE
Daedelus
Koen Daigaku
Thomas Feiner
Flying Lotus
Joe Grimm
Grouper
Marihiko Hara
Headphone Science
Akai Ikuo
Ariel Kalma
Like Kisses Of Thread
Lull
Yoshio Machida
Machinefabriek + Vitiello
Israel Martinez
Nurse With Wound
Oubys
Chris Paul and Mia V
Phasen
Pop Levi
Ruhlmann + Celer
Janek Schaefer
Henning Schmiedt
Sense Project
The Silverman
Slowcream
Spartak
Strom Noir
Subheim
TaughtMe
Cristian Vogel
Goro Watari

Compilations / Mixes
Adultnapper
Cocoon Compilation H
Marcel Dettmann
Emerging Organisms
Gothenburg 08
Onur Özer
Holgi Star & Harry Axt
Seed Records Vol. 2
Tech My House 2
Prins Thomas & Full Pupp

EPs
3ofmillions
A "New Generation" EP
Giesela
Brian James
Kontext
Outputmessage
Palac
Chris Paul
Lasse-Marc Riek
Simon Whetham

The Bug: London Zoo
Ninja Tune

London Zoo signifies Kevin Martin's full-fledged absorption into London 's dubstep scene, even if the album's rhythms are just as often rooted in dancehall as dubstep. Long-time electronic music listeners will be familiar with Martin's other projects—Techno Animal and God (both with Justin Broadrick), to name two—but The Bug is a radically different animal, though it does share their apocalyptic tone. Put simply, London Zoo's a dizzying and noisy mix of head-nodding rhythms, clattering beats, and slithering bass throb coupled with jackhammer vocal somersaults by Killa P, Flowdan, Warrior Queen, Roots Manuva associate Ricky Ranking, Spaceape, and others (all but one of the hour-long album's dozen songs features vocals).

The hammering dancehall chug of “Angry” and bitter vocal roar of Tippa Irie immediately establish the album's aggressive tone, which is pushed even further when the crazed delirium of “Murder We,” “Jah War,” and “Warning” takes charge. The tracks featuring Warrior Queen are among the album's best. Her (oft-multi-tracked) voice sails confidently over the pummeling broil of “Insane,” and the massive crunch and howl of “Poison Dart” can't overpower her wail either. In a surprising move, Martin takes the decibel level down a few notches for both “You & Me” and “Judgement," thereby providing Roger Robinson and Ranking with (relatively) restrained bases over which to sing, while the brooding instrumental “Freak Freak” offers a refreshing respite from the raucous vocal attack. The participation of Hyperdub MC Spaceape is more than welcome—too bad that something lyrically more palatable than the profanity-laden “Fuckaz” couldn't have been produced for the album. Regardless, it would be wrong to lump The Bug's collection in with Tectonic, Hyperdub, and Tempa releases; though there are commonalities between London Zoo and those labels' offerings, Martin's release very much stands alone.

August 2008