Album Review: Sirens by Kevin Richard Martin

Throughout his 29-year career, Kevin Martin has made a name for himself in the electronic, industrial and dancehall scenes, under names like GOD, Techno Animal and the Bug. But for his latest LP, the British musician decided to ditch the monikers, perhaps because Sirens is by far the most personal album Kevin Richard Martin has ever made.   The 14-track/60-minute album documents Martin's experiences with his wife's life-threatening issues during the birth of their first child, along with the two operations their son had to endure within ….

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To watch your partner give birth is to feel utterly helpless. In the midst of one of the defining moments of your life, you're practically inert. There's little you can do to help beyond words and gestures of sympathy and encouragement. You spend months pouring as much positivity as possible on a situation that is equal parts exciting and daunting, particularly when it's your first child.

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What no one really tells first-time fathers about childbirth is how intensely fucking scary it can be, especially when something goes wrong. Watching, waiting, and realizing there's almost nothing you can do while your partner endures acute physical pain and your child struggles in its first brutal moments is a surreal, savage experience with few parallels in sanitized modern life. Kudos, then, to Kevin Richard Martin--better known for his work as the Bug and King Midas Sound--for tackling the subject on Sirens, a solo album that charts his emotional response to new parenthood, an experience heightened by his wife's emergency procedures and his son's medical problems.

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