Tonight, Friday 13th November, The Bug, Flowdan and Manga are going to give Brixton a rumble on its foundations alongside Congo Natty and Mala – tickets here. To get you geared up for that, and hopefully to release a few bits of plaster from your own kitchen ceiling, we’ve got the shuddering beast that is Kevin Martin’s ‘Meth Teng’ for you to stream via our Soundcloud above. This is one of four takes on the classic sleng teng riddim that The Bug is releasing via gear manufacturers Elektron. You can hear two other tracks via FACT here.
Says The Bug man: "I Normally hate cover versions but decided i had to atomise this classic. The original is an obsession for me… Eddie Cochrane’s riff located to Kingston Jamaica, the death of reggae bands, the rise of bionic dreads. A dancehall tech swing ting that revolutionised the island and to an extent the world. Rock’s pelvis, dancehall’s swing… repetition, repetition and repetition. As funky as The Meters and as grinding as Swans, ‘Sleng Teng’ is a literally irresistible force. I’ve been brainwashed by so many versions that all resistance is now futile, so I wanted to spit out the digested madness as a sci-fi yard tape transmitted from an electrical storm in my messed up Bug mind. Elektron offered me a gear for noise deal. I gave them BIG noise. It was my way of exploring their machinery, my obsession with a dancehall classic, and how far I could turn a riff upside down, and inside out."
Berlin readers will like to know that The Bug with Flowdan, Manga and Miss Red will be performing alongside Frank Bretschneider, Blush Response, Dataline, A/ONA and Philipp Strobel at Arena Club on November 26th and tickets are only EIGHT EUROS! Say Elektron "One more thing. We’re celebrating the release of Elektron Grammofon #2: The Bug vs. Sleng Teng. We’d like to humbly propose that this slab of vinyl will be a huge treat to budding MCs. Check out what Miss Red did when she got her hands on the very first copy of it."
