Bleep

Kevin Richard Martin - the artist behind such ventures as The Bug, King Midas Sound and Techno Animal - recently became a father. Having a child is a tumultuous experience under any circumstances, but when complications with the birth mean that both your partner and newborn baby have to undergo emergency procedures? That’s serious business. Never one to shy away from the heavy stuff, Martin channels these experiences into Sirens, the first LP to be released under his given name. On this record Martin strips away all of the rhythm and sound to leave us in a world of ash-grey fog. Sirens is a hugely eerie listen, the sort of thing the late Mark Fisher might well have enjoyed, and one that represents another triumph for its talented creator.

Label boss Lawrence English remembers "When I was 22 I managed to acquire Techno Animal’s Demonoid 12” at a local record store, Rocking Horse Records. I can still recall the intensities of sound that marked the first moments of listening to it. The sense of bass as a tactile surface, that rolling groove and the howling sine waves and dub sirens that scorched with a type of sonic burning sensation that to this day makes my hairs stand on end."

Landing on Room40 for the first time, Kevin Richard Martin cements his position carved out over many years as a pioneering source of inspiration in modern electronic music.