Never Ending Winding Roads

Retiring to his studio during 2020s COVID-19 lockdown, Steve Bug, free from the typical touring cycle, resolved to make an album not beholden to the dancefloor, on which he could stretch out and try new ideas. This is that album, and its a relaxed, midtempo affair with loads of space. That said, the dancefloor is in Bugs blood, and he can never entirely leave it behind. One could certainly dance to this record, even if that dancing, for most of the tracks, were something of a loose-limbed shuffle. The basic template, as with all of Bugs work, is electro-house, all of the tracks built around a simple framework with a minimum of elements: a synth arpeggio loop, a gentle beat, a rolling bass line, and always a little something tucked away in the background to discover on repeat listens -- a gossamer synth pad here, a weird, insistent electronic noise there. The playful Ludic Loops opens the album with a stuttering, insistent synth line flickering in and out like a strobe light in the darkness. Hijacked Minds has a hypnotic, undulating synth pad that swells and falls in the background almost all the way through the track, and a pulse-like beat. The mournful Electro Harmonix and The Awakening nod to 1980s synth masters like Vangelis or Jarre with their plangent melodies. A Conscious Machine is one of the sets most uptempo tracks, with a wobbling synth line and grinding bass stabs. Yellow Snake and Confidence Dub are dub outings; the former, but for the modern synth sounds, could have come right out of King Tubbys circa 1975, while the latter hews closer to the classic Basic Channel dub techno style. Raindance 101 also has a dubby feel, and is one of the albums most haunting melodies. Locked Away in My Head and The Clock Is Ticking are darker, more insistent pieces that feature Bugs filtered and processed voice intoning the titular phrases -- possibly a reference to the isolation he felt during the lockdown. The bouncy, joyful Upon Mountains ends the album with a sense of hope. This is a really unified record that feels very much of a piece. Its one of the best additions to date to Bugs catalog, and could easily attract downtempo fans who otherwise might not have had much interest in his usual work. ~ John D. Buchanan