The Bug feat. Dis Fig - In Blue [2 x 12" Vinyl LP]

Available: 18th December 2020

The Bug aka Kevin Martin, and producer/vocalist Dis Fig aka Felicia Chen, refer to their style on ‘In Blue’ as “Tunnel Sound”; a foggy, melancholic meltdown of narco-dancehall-soul and dread-drenched, electronic dub. The 2018 prototype rhythms for this album were a continuation of Martin’s ongoing quest for a futuristic dancehall mutation, but more sci-fi, aquatic and smokey than before. An obsessive search for the right sultry 2AM voice to ride his syncopated walls of sub, fuzzed out white noise and infinite echoes eventually led him to Dis Fig’s torched soul-jazz glow, and 20 months of subsequent lab exchanges have resulted in the deeply sensual pulsations and lyrical long shadows of ‘In Blue’ - an album that shares shades of King Midas Sound’s wrecked lovers rock, alongside the bass immersion that The Bug has become infamously known for. Just as Martin took a stylistic swerve on ‘In Blue’, so did Chen. Previously known for experimental noise onslaughts and emotional exorcisms, she opts here for threatening intimacy and hushed confessionals, concentrating on bittersweet vocals and seductive surprises that are all the more potent for their inferred narratives and delicate delivery. Mixed during lockdown, the sense of claustrofear, escapism and tension throughout is palpable. With the bewitching croon of Dis Fig directing the flow, carnality and violence merge under the turbulent, cinematic surface of an hypnotically addictive album.

a1. The Bug feat. Dis Fig - Around Me

a2. The Bug feat. Dis Fig - Come

a3. The Bug feat. Dis Fig - Destroy Me

b1. The Bug feat. Dis Fig - Blood

b2. The Bug feat. Dis Fig - In 2 U

b3. The Bug feat. Dis Fig - Levitating

c1. The Bug feat. Dis Fig - Forever

c2. The Bug feat. Dis Fig - Blue To Black

c3. The Bug feat. Dis Fig - Take

d1. The Bug feat. Dis Fig - No Return

d2. The Bug feat. Dis Fig - You

d3. The Bug feat. Dis Fig - End In Blue