(03.15.06) Long awaited return of The Bug on Rephlex, after the successful Pressure and after the announcement of the release of Killing Sound over a year ago. This is a solid release indeed, and there’s only one thing I can’t understand: the 2 CD’s run for a total of 81 minutes, so why include “Killer” that was featured on Pressure? It could fit all together on a single CD. The only use I can see is to allow CDJ’s a monster mash-up between vocals and dub versions, which would be real fun.
The tunes here are slightly more ruff and angry compared to Pressure, and if you’re thinking that was hard enough, it’s better you go back to some chilled stuff. This is a serious assault, both Kevin Martin and The Rootsman squeezed the machines at the limits of their capabilities and all the toasters show relentless vocal fury. The Versions CD is especially good to test your speakers and your eardrums, the wall of raw bass and screeching feedback plus the clashing drums represent a true challenge for the hardcore listener. Don’t trust those who say that Killing Sound is influenced by the rising sound of dubstep, I can tell you there’s a major drum’n’bass influence instead, as you can hear in the breakneck fast “Yard Man” or in “Boom Boom Claat,” where the leader is a big reece bass almost equal to the infamous Q-Project’s “Champion Sound” (don’t know what track this is? Shame on you!). But the best of all must be “I Don’t Know” featuring Tony Tuff, this track struggles endlessly before exploding with the chorus, that features an ominous resonant bass so huge you can’t believe it.
Less varied than Pressure, where nocturnal dub balanced the fierce hardcore, Killing Sound is probably the best toxic dancehall record around, and remember not to miss The Bug live because it’s an indelible experience. (Buy it at Amazon.com)
Killing Sound is out now on Rephlex.
