London Zoo provides the perfect showcase for its colourful menagerie of MCs and singers. And the Bug's no-nonsense clank and grind production fosters a rare intensity of focus on this album's higher purpose.
The cumulative effect – somewhere around being lifted into the heavens by sunrays – is at odds with the continuous black clouds that come before. Yet it’s a necessary chink of light to conclude a journey so oppressive you may just forget to breathe through its duration.
The vastly competent array of MCs each have their own distinct flow and pace, but very little — from Flowdan’s lightning-fast verbal gymnastics, to Rick Ranking’s slow-cooked esophageal rumblings, to Roger Robinson’s soulful melancholy — clashes in a way that dulls or vitiates the album’s impact.
Kevin Martin, under a dozen-or-so aliases and across numerous genres, has been screwing around with deep bass for well over a decade. 1997's Tapping the Conversation-- a concept album conceived as a surrogate soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation-- was his first release as the Bug, and in retrospect, it sounds like an alternate-universe prototype of dubstep, based on instrumental hip-hop rather than UK garage rhythms. By the time he issued his 2003 follow-up Pressure, he'd already charged headlong into heavy digital ragga, building a repertoire of grimy, distorted beats that mutated dancehall into a glitchy, blown-out commotion.
As an album, London Zoo is simply more engaging. Kevin’s production is intense but club-ready, and the lyrics are righteous and relevant.
As apocalyptic as his vision can be, the thrill as he pushes his sounds further outwards proves to be as seductive as it is forbidding.
This album is top-and-tailed by two wonderful tracks as Kevin Martin explores a far darker side to dubstep and its integral poetry. As Martin stated in interview: ‘With music, most people buy into either a fantasy, or into a harsh reality. ‘London Zoo’ was a harsh reality for me at that time’. The result is overall a far more consistent release which intrigues from the outset. It starts off so well with veteran MC, Tippa Irie’s brutal summary of the flaws of George ... read more
When it comes to di war
Your face could get scarred and wet up like a perm
That's not my concern
Man I roll with Jah!
This album is not really good nor does it have anything special to it. It's the first Dancehall album I've ever listened to, and I have to say, it didn't leave me with any good expectations, but I will definitely check out more of the genre. The lyrics are nothing special, they just talk about partying and having fun, they sometimes involve some anti-war and rebellious messages, but they do it on a really basic level. They don't even manage to scratch the surface, not even a little bit. ... read more
overall, i have very mixed feelings on this project.. the highlights have some amazing verses from flowdan and the spaceape feature delivers as spaceape always does. maybe the sound is too experimental for me? i'm open to accepting my own shortcomings in some of the ideas presented but i'm left feeling a little underwhelmed by songs like 'insane' or even when martin is soloing it and it even feels like he periodically boxes himself in with his own influences when he has some very strong, ... read more
This album is top-and-tailed by two wonderful tracks as Kevin Martin explores a far darker side to dubstep and its integral poetry. As Martin stated in interview: ‘With music, most people buy into either a fantasy, or into a harsh reality. ‘London Zoo’ was a harsh reality for me at that time’. The result is overall a far more consistent release which intrigues from the outset. It starts off so well with veteran MC, Tippa Irie’s brutal summary of the flaws of George ... read more
This album is not really good nor does it have anything special to it. It's the first Dancehall album I've ever listened to, and I have to say, it didn't leave me with any good expectations, but I will definitely check out more of the genre. The lyrics are nothing special, they just talk about partying and having fun, they sometimes involve some anti-war and rebellious messages, but they do it on a really basic level. They don't even manage to scratch the surface, not even a little bit. ... read more
1 | Angry 3:37 feat. Tippa Irie | |
2 | Murder We 3:53 feat. Ricky Ranking | |
3 | Skeng 4:39 | 100 |
4 | Too Much Pain 3:56 feat. Ricky Ranking | |
5 | Insane 3:29 feat. Warrior Queen | |
6 | Jah War 3:00 feat. Flowdan | |
7 | Fuckaz 5:25 feat. The Spaceape | |
8 | You & Me 4:12 feat. Roger Robinson | |
9 | Freak Freak 5:00 | |
10 | Warning 3:51 feat. Flowdan | |
11 | Poison Dart 6:14 feat. Warrior Queen | |
12 | Judgement 10:37 feat. Ricky Ranking |
#5 | / | PopMatters |
#9 | / | MOJO |
#11 | / | The Guardian |
#16 | / | FACT Magazine |
#16 | / | No Ripcord |
#38 | / | Pitchfork |