Recorded at home in the autumn of 2013 with a variety of synthesizers, drum machines, and assorted hand-made electronics, Damaged Bug is Oh Sees mastermind John Dwyer's latest bit of cracked pop alchemy. The project is the cure to the ailment of too much guitar for too long. Fizzing and sputtering like a glowing temperamental cockpit control panel, this is Dwyer bunkered deep in a blinking laboratory and penning songs about the long arc of our travels across space and time. Propulsive beats and synthetic veneers support and coat laser guided melodies reflecting off shiny metal surfaces, and instrumental interludes pop in and out like breaks in the asteroid belt. A far-out side of our main man - nocturnal, hard-wired, and chrome-plated...

You're either going to totally love Damaged Bug's Hubba Bubba, or really hate it. Sadly, while I understand what was trying to be achieved here, I fall into the latter camp. Tunes that Kraftwerk would have ditched and vocals that sound lifeless and out of tune don't help to engage the listener. In fact they are incredibly irritating. The electronic sounds can on occasion be interesting, but more often that not they're

On a plus note, it appears that Damaged Bug travel to the Moon on the track 'Hubba Bubba' and bring back audio proof that The Clangers are real!

The grating, lifeless, out of tune vocals are too much to bear and electronic bleeps and whistles become a little annoying a little too quickly.

3

Nick Smithson