Following an early morning conference that involved three chocolate croissants and a Danish pastry (shout-out to Tesco on Pentonville Road), some heavy deliberation and one purchase of slacks in procrastination, we’re excited to announce that The Bug is this year’s winner of the Quietus Jovian Bow Shock prize for his album Angels & Devils! He’ll be receiving a special Quietus trophy in the form of a "Christopher Isherwood hamper for an Englishman in Berlin exile", which may, at the time of going to press, be heavily oriented around Yorkshire Tea. And let’s face it, sooner that than the piffling £20,000 the Mercury Prize offers, eh?
Reviewing the album, Rory Gibb concluded: "Still possessing that knack for unearthing pop from the most shadowy of places, here Kevin Martin’s pinpointed a zone where the furious party impulses and black humour of early incarnations of The Bug are threaded through with vulnerability and tenderness, and where sound system wreckers coexist alongside tracks that battle through the city while enclosed in their own space, hood up and headphones on." Speaking to tQ’s Luke Turner about this duality, Martin said: "My taste for music is absolutely split between being in a club playing shows where I just want to be physically assaulted and overwhelmed and taken to a different planet, or riding around on a bike or in an aeroplane or waiting in an airport, zoning. I wanted that duality pushed to the fore."
Congratulations to The Bug and to everyone shortlisted, Bong, Daniel Patrick Quinn, FKA twigs, Ibibio Sound Machine, Leyland Kirby, Manic Street Preachers, Perc, Ronika, Simon Fisher Turner, Sleaford Mods and Teeth Of The Sea, and here’s to another year of ace new music.
