The Bug and Earth will team up for a new album set for release next month, entitled Concrete Desert, and you can listen to the colossal lead single ‘Snakes Vs Rats’ above.
The pair first started recording together while The Bug was working on his 2014 album Angels & Devils, and the release of this new album comes in the wake of numerous joint live shows, as well as a previous two-track EP which gave us a first look into how their sounds would join up.
The Bug and Earth came together in Daddy Kev’s LA studio to work on Concrete Desert, having been invited to LA to play together at Ninja Tune’s 25th anniversary party. Kevin Martin says that this album is, in some ways, a Los Angeles-set companion piece to his album London Zoo. J.G. Ballard’s dystopias and the Californian dream are also cited as influences on the album.
"Dylan’s a master at amplifying the flavour of America,” says Kevin Martin of Earth’s Dylan Carlson, "but not the side we see in this Trump climate." Martin describes the American dream as "a nightmare under Trump," but says that Carlson captures the "best side of that dream, a utopian openess."
The album will be released digitally by Ninja Tune on March 24 with a physical release following on May 5. The pair will play London’s Heaven together on April 12 following that show up with dates in Leeds and Manchester in the two nights that follow.
The album’s digital edition also features three bonus tracks, with two of those including contributions from JK Flesh, with whom The Bug has also worked extensively in the past. ‘Snakes Vs Rats’ is available to buy now.
