Storm Bugs - Storm Bugs

 

Side A

1 Untitled

2 Our Main Objective

3 Blackheath Incident

 

Side B

1 Hiemal/Window Shopping

2 Outburst

3 Hodge

All tracks and music by Philip Sanderson except Untitled which features Sarah Pomeroy on Cello. 

Credits:

Format: Cassette, 5-10 copies

Release Date: 1981

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: SS1

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson. Photocopy onto white card. Photograph taken by David Scholefield in Maidstone

 

Notes:

A compilation of tracks By Storm Bugs many of which had been previously released. The Hiemal/Window Shopping track is a unique mix and was used as the soundtrack to the Storm Bugs film Table Matters by Steven Ball. This was re-issued on the 40th anniversary CD of a A Safe Substitute. Similarly the mix of Our Main Objective differs from other versions.  

Various - Snatch 1

Side 1

Karl's Empty Body - 1441

N4's - N4's

Storm Bugs - Hodge

 

Side 2

Steven Reynolds

Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey - Under Press of Sail

A Clough - Untitled

Credits:

Format: Cassette, 50 copies

Release Date: 1979

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: None

Sleeve Design: Photocopy onto white paper, design by Philip Sanderson, photo by Sally Francis

 

Notes:

The first ever Snatch Tape kicks off with the DIY pop of Karl's Empty Body, a fairly straightforward number, nicely mangled by being fed through a couple of VCS3 ring modulators. The N4's feature some sweet blister guitar (Neu with a drum machine?). Side one rounds off with the Storm Bugs number 'Hodge' again featuring that great British synth the VCS3. Side 2 has the first outing for those fictitous knob twiddlers Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey. The side ends with a melancholic piece of morse interference by A Clough. The tracks by Karl's Empty Body, The N4s, A Clough, and Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey were all later included on the Vinyl on Demand LP Snatch Paste.

Various - Cassette Culture - Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet-Age

CD1

10-Speed Guillotine - Temper Tango 

Aconite (2) -The Truth About Cable TV 

Another Headache - Cacophony Continues 

Autopsia - Lebensherrgabe 

Beequeen - EE EA 

Big City Orchestra - Karawane 

Bret Hart - Partytime 

Brume - An Amphibian 

Cacophony 33 - Frank 

Charles Rice Goff III - Big Surprise 

Dog As Master - Black Body (Excerpt) 

Don Campau - 'I Am Not Satisfied 

E Coli - Lag Phase / Djihad 

E G Oblique Graph - Fall Into Glass 

F-i - Zombie 

Gen Ken Montgomery - It Happened To You 

Girls On Fire - In My Blood 

If,Bwana - Beauty And The Beast 

ITN / Mental Anguish - Frce Of Waves (Edit) 

Jeff Central - Tragick 

Joseph K Noyce - The Beat 

Kapotte Muziek - Audio Plagio 2 

Ken Moore - Soft Pretense 

  

CD2

Larynx - Graett 

Lord Litter - St James Infirmary 

Markus Schwill - The Advantage Of Tape-Music 

Minoy - Eskalith 

Monochrome Bleu - Imagination 

Muslimgauze - Cyst 

Mystery Hearsay - Painted 

Non Toxique - Lost Statements 

PBK - Untitled 04 

Philip Johnson - Two Tracks Unused At The Time 

Psi Nukli - Trip Sequence II 

R Stevie Moore - Puttin' Up The Groceries 

Ri Gillham - Soundtracks For Imaginary Films 

Rimbaud Brothers - Deceit 

Rod Summers - Sad News 

Sheer Zed - Take A Walk Down The Street 

Storm Bugs - Hodge 

Taste Of Stool - Squeeze Bees 

Viktimized Karcass - 3.32 AM Rain 

Vittore Baroni - Living With Prosthesis 

Walls Of Genius - Sunday, Monday Or Always! 

Wolfgang Wiggers - I'll Cry Tomorrow 

2-23 -Years On Earth -Opposition

 

Credits:

Format: 320 page book by Jerry Kranitz with 2 x CD

Release Date: 2020

Label: Vinyl on Demand

Catalogue Number: VOD158

Sleeve Design: Jelle Martensn

 

Notes:

A book on cassette culture with accompanying 2 x CD set. Includes the Storm Bugs track 'Hodge'.

Various - Perspectives and Distortion

Side A

Claire Thomas and Susan Vezey - Bright Waves

Matt Johnson - What Stanley Saw

Virgin Prunes - "Third Secret"

Lol Coxhill - The Calm...

Lemon Kittens - ...In Wooden Brackets

Eyeless In Gaza - You Frighten

Kevin Coyne - Hello Judas

Mark Perry - Dear, Dear

Side B

Ben Watt - Departure

Two Daughters - Return Call/We Are

Kevin Hampson - People In Space

Thomas Leer - Kings of Sham

Five or Six - Folded

Morgan-Fisher - Foreign Correspondent

Robert Fripp - Remorse of Conscience

A Tent - No Way of Knowing

David Jackman - Untitled

Credits:

Format: LP

Release Date: 1981

Label: Cherry Red Records

Catalogue Number BRED15:

 

Format: CD

Release Date: 2003

Label: Cherry Red Records

Catalogue Number: CDMRED231.

 

Notes:

A Cherry Red compilation from 1981 featuring Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey's Bright Waves (a different version of the track that appears on the Reprint cassette) and 'Untitled' by David Jackman. The LP was Re-issued in 2003 on CD on Cherry Red's archive series. The Claire Thomas and Susan Vezey 'Bright Waves' track was also re-issued on the On One of These Bends LP by Philip Sanderson in 2018. 

 

David Jackman - Up from Zero

Tracklist:

Ways To The Sea 

Threshold 

Up From Zero

Offshore

 

Credits:

Format,: CD 500 copies

Release Date: 2003

Label: Robot Records 

Catalogue Number: RR-31

Sleeve and label Design: David Jackman

 

Notes:

Up From Zero was originally released in 1982 on cassette (Aeroplane Records AR3, UK), This CD re-issue also includes 'Offshore' (1980) a collaboration with Philip Sanderson which first appeared on the David Jackman Snatch Tape, Ritual (TCH211). The cover shows David from sometime in 1979/80.

  

Philip Sanderson - Through a Telephone Box Darkly/Suicide Suite

1 Intro (The Boy in the Bright Blue Jeans) (0:41) 

2 Golden Showers (January 72)  (3:35) 

3 Cortege (3:09) 

4 Heartache in Heddon St ( 5:46) 

5 Scene Change  (1:13) 

6 Through a Telephone Box Darkly (5:10) 

7 Weird & Gilly Ride Again (4:22) 

All tracks by Philip Sanderson

 

Credits:

Format: CD-R, 50 copies

Release Date: 2000

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: tch

Sleeve Design: Layout by Philip Sanderson

 

Notes:

Suicide Suite is a collection of tracks built around snippets (or as they were described in a press release at the time "fag ends and fade-outs") from Bowie's much-celebrated Ziggy Stardust LP. The result is less mash-up, and more of a soundtrack to Heddon street the location for the red telephone box seen on the back of the LP. 50 promotional CD-R were produced with a view to securing an official release. Bowie's office in New York were contacted and agreed in principle as long as there was a minimum of 10,000 copies of the CD made. This was financially unfeasible at the time and so the please did not go ahead, which perhaps was the intention? Whether Bowie ever got to hear the tracks we shall never know.

 

The Bowie fan site 5 Years ran a small feature on the release in early 2001, and the majority of the CD-Rs went to keen Bowie fans. Since then the tracks have popped up on the web a couple of times in a slightly expanded version with extra tracks retitled as Through A Telephone Box Darkly. The notes below are from the 5 Years feature.

 

1 Intro (The Boy in the Bright Blue Jeans) (0:41) 

The Suite is introduced by a short overture; a granular synthesis montage of elements from a number of the Ziggy tracks, stretched and twisted into a new soundscape.

2 Golden Showers (January 72)  (3:35) 

On a cold and wet night in January 1972 our cast assembles under the street lamps in a quiet cul de sac off Regent St, London, namely Heddon St. Creating a backdrop to the scene "Golden Showers" takes a very familiar 3/4 drum pattern as its starting point and laces it with staccato bursts of feedback Ronson guitar and romantic piano flourishes.  "It was cold and it rained..."

3 Cortege (3:09) 

The tracks starts with a revolving organ pattern, over which can be heard the old manual dialling sound of a phone as someone rings the Heddon St box.  Next the track moves into processional mode with Ziggy repeating "Rock, Rock, Rock N Roll", before the dark coated funereal horns arrive, and the Cortege makes its way up from Piccadilly and into Heddon St proper.

4 Heartache in Heddon St ( 5:46) 

A blustery day out in Heddon St, as our hero revisits the scene of past romances ("Lucy stayed at home to starve").  The track starts with the distant sound of traffic and passers by, In the background Ziggy repeats a slow "Bom, Bom, B-Bom Bom" as above piano's tinkle and a piccolo picks out a mournful tune.

5 Scene Change  (1:13) 

A breathing space for the cast to get their breaths back whilst out in the Street the finishing touches are put to the new set.  Almost ambient, granular synthesised elements from Ziggy float past.

6 Through a Telephone Box Darkly (5:10) 

"When the kids had killed the man..." a slow mantra for now the departed main man with full backing from sweeping mellotrons and the Vienna Boys’ Choir. 

7 Weird & Gilly Ride Again (4:22) 

After the sadness and despair of "Through a Telephone Box Darkly", hope comes again as Weird and Gilly pick themselves up and prepare for the long journey home.  The track combines the first and last sounds of "Rock N Roll Suicide", namely the final string chord of the LP and the strummed guitar intro to create a number that has more than a hint of the spaghetti Western about it as our two heroes ride off into the sunset.

 

 

Ice Yacht - Pillbox

Side A

1. Pillbox 13:30

2. Up and Over 01:28

 

Side B

3. Slow Water 09:09

4. Ice Spikes 05:36

 

All tracks by Philip Sanderson.

 

Credits:

Release Date: 2020

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: tch 219

Sleeve Design: Layout and painting by Philip Sanderson

Reviews:

Review by Frans de Waard - Vital Weekly, number 1243 week 30

 

A few years ago I reviewed 'Pole Of Cold' by Ice Yacht, a musical project by former Storm Bug Philip Sanderson (Vital Weekly 981). Between then (2015) and now, Sanderson became more active and usually under his name. I am not sure why he pulled out the moniker Ice Yacht again unless it is to say that this is something quite different from his other work, which is quite electronic and at times 'poppy' (a term to be used carefully). As Ice Yacht we find him in a more abstract modus operandi. During the April lockdown he went out on the "Romney Marshes to capture ‘wild sound’, be it rusty gates, distant warehouse activity on the river Rother, or short wave radio signals", which back home were moulded into four pieces of music. Sanderson calls it "badly treated and manipulated before being fed into feedback loops", which may suggest something noisy and gruesome and that it surely is not. It is not necessarily very quiet and ambient. Rusty it surely is, and we can connect Ice Yacht to the many musicians working with similar strategies of lo-fi ambience based on field recordings taped onto old cassettes. It lacks Sanderson's current electronic and 'poppy' edge and sees him returning to the loopy scratched records of Storm Bugs, but perhaps less loopy and scratched. Different techniques and more experience in crafting experimental music resulting in thirty minutes of fine sonic bliss and at that, I must say, all too short. I would have loved more of this today. Had I known where I kept the download of the previous one, I would have played that straight after this. Now, I settled for this twice and that also went down well. (FdW) 

 

Review by Neil Kulkarni The Wire September 2020 

Sanderson has also put out new recordings under the name Ice Yacht, and Pillbox is four tracks of purely instrumental composition, wherein his vocal absence allows for a more introspective and wintry unfolding of his fascinations. The two long pieces here are key. “Slow Water" seems to follow an Antarctic dredger through an endless night, signs of life dopplering off downwards from its implacable movement, and "Pillbox" is isolationism par excellence, the terror and beauty of an endless ice shelf surveyed with a laser-like, steadicam feel, before unseen megabeasts start breaking through the mantle and pulling you under. 

Philip Sanderson - The Ringing of a Bell

 

 1. The Ringing of a Bell 16:45

Unknown Bell Ringer: Single Bell Toll.

Philip Sanderson: Sound Manipulation.. 

Credits:

Format: Bandcamp Download

Release Date: 2022

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: None

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson 

Notes:

And so the Queen is dead, and the bell tolls 96 times – what can be drawn from this dull and dutiful repetition, dong, dong, dong, neither building nor climaxing, an endless anticipation, a ceremony of the senses, an everything of nothing, a shrill shell. 

 

Let us take just one single toll of the bell and see if out of that metal on metal we can conjure something befitting… 

 

I give you The Ringing of a Bell

Philip Sanderson - Lost With All Hands

1. LOST WITH ALL HANDS (The Legend of Goodwin Sands) 19:04

2. The Mourning After 20:52

Music Side A & B: Philip Sanderson 

Vocals and lyrics Side A: George Gilbert - from the album Medway Flows Softly - Songs of Kent by George Gilbert.

Credits:

Format: Bandcamp Download

Release Date: 2022

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: None

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson 

Notes:

Goodwin Sands is a sandbank off the coast of Deal in Kent notorious as the site of shipwrecks and the loss of thousands of lives. The perils of the sands and the phantom vessels that haunt it have been the subject of folk songs and poems. LOST WITH ALL HANDS locates itself within this narrative. The two elements of the piece are an electronic soundscape combined with a reworking of a folk song The Legend of Goodwin Sands that originally appeared on the 1974 LP Medway Flows Softly - Songs of Kent by George Gilbert. The soundscape was made using granular synthesis with the shifting atoms echoing the particles on the sands, whilst Gilbert’s voice has been electronically processed to generate an accompanying crew/chorus of voices. Side B - The Mourning After employs pulse comb filters excited by a range of audio sources including location recordings in Kent, vocals and shortwave radio.

credits

 

Ice Yacht -Noisy Nylon

Side A

1. Nitty Nora (Head Explorer) 03:37

2. Underneath The Underneath 02:42

3. Teen Scene 05:05

4. Dépêche-Toi (Hurry Up) 04:18

5. Break Their Legs so They Can't Lay Eggs 04:17

Side B

6. Running From Ghosts 13:09

7. Jizzy Jazz 05:54

Credits:

Format: MC 30 copies, Bandcamp Download

Release Date: 2022

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: tch 223

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson 

 

Notes: Philip Sanderson: various software, vocals, guitar, shortwave radio, MFB Nanozwerg, and artwork.

Reviews:

"...excursions of cosmic music being crushed by the wheels of hard-hitting pop industrialism. A great blast!" Frans de Waard Vital weekly number 1336

Philip Sanderson - Passionate Particles

Tracklist:

1 Lay-by Lullaby

2 Omeletto

3 Feeding Time 

4 Body Snatcher

5 Crystal Set 

6 Down A Denny Lane 

7 Kite 

8 Racing The Arctic Shadow 

9 Summer With The Snow Bees 

10 Pity The Small 

11 View From A Hill 

12 Rumble Of The Ruins 

13 Slow Water 

14 Morphover & Curl 

15 Cash Back

16 Swing 

17 Colour Buffer

 

All tracks by Philip Sanderson

 

Credits:

Format: CD 300 copies

Release Date: 2022

Label: Klanggalerie

Catalogue Number: gg378

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson 

 

Notes:

Passionate Particles is an hour-long compilation of tracks drawn from LP, CD, MC, and DL releases made between 2000 and 2021.

 

Reviews:

 

PHILIP SANDERSON - PASSIONATE PARTICLES (CD by Klanggalerie)

 

I like Austria's Klanggalerie label because they are not strictly a re-issue label, even when a considerable part of their catalogue is about giving old releases a new life. They also like their old artists to release new music, which is great. Please don't stick to your old guns, but also care about new music, as we will see today and in the next few weeks; I got a few of their recent releases. Today I'd like to start with Philip Sanderson. As you may know, Sanderson began his musical career in the late 70s with the Storm Bugs and his Snatch Tapes label. For many years he worked his own name (next to a more ambient oriented side project as Ice Yacht), and 'Passionate Particles' can be seen as a re-issue but not of one particular old release. Rather, it is a collection of pieces from the last twenty years that found their way to a plethora of formats (LP, cassettes, downloads, CDR). I enjoyed Storm Bugs in the past, but Sanderson's work is totally my thing. It is a no-brainer that I picked his album first from the bundle of Klanggalerie. Since the release of 'On One Of Those Bends' (Vital Weekly 1177), I have paid particular attention to his work. There is something lovely pop music about his work. I recently (Vital Weekly 1290; two of the pieces from that cassette are also on this CD) connected to Sparks, especially in his vocal delivery. That is not yet as strong on the sixteen pieces on 'Passionate Particles', except for the two pieces from Not Even My Closest Friends', but poppy it certainly is. Not the naff kind that is popular with the kids these days, but lovely music for adults. All electronic and sometimes instrumental bring a fine balance to the album. I would think that if you love Sparks or The Residents (who have a strong presence in the Klanggalerie as well), Sanderson's music will go down well, even without the guitar parts that these days seem to play a more significant role with The Residents (so I am told, not being the biggest fan there; odd, come to think of it). Sanderson's music isn't per se uptempo and upbeat, but moody and introspective, next to being quirky and pleasant; another excellent act of balancing there. Obviously, you'd find none of these tunes in any top ten, which is a great pity. This is precisely the sort of music that deserves a bigger audience; if only the world would listen! Today it rained a lot, but this release put a big smile on my face. It went straight to repeat, just as yesterday. Next up is some more of his music, as I call it a day and I want to enjoy some more wacky tunes! (FdW)

 

From Vital Weekly 1322 February 2022

Purchase this CD

 

 

 

Steven Ball - Middle Footscray

1.Take One 03:48

2. Down the Dip 02:07

3. Morning Folds 04:09

4. Bloody Hell Good Boy 02:10

5. Shelf Stacker 00:49

6. Man Overboard 02:53

7. Coffee Bean Ant 02:24

8. Wooden Piano 01:12

9. Seddon Junction 00:30

10. Deep Problem 00:27

11. Failure of Nerve 03:09

12. Umbel 13:47

13. Up the Sides 02:51

 

Credits:

Format: Bandcamp download

Release Date: 2016

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: None

Sleeve Design: Steven Ball

 

Notes:

All tracks by Steven Ball recorded in Footscray, Melbourne, Australia, 1997 - 1999. Tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8 recorded 1997 tracks 2, 9, 10, & 11 recorded 1998 track 13 recorded 1999. All tracks constructed using various shareware, sampled found sound, ambient room and field recordings. Tracks 1, 4, & 6 constructed entirely from found audio rushes from an unidentified Australian film. Track 12 is the soundtrack to the super 8 film ‘Umbel' by Ooni Peh. Lomograph by Steven Ball 1997.

   

Philip Sanderson and David Jackman -Terrain/Adrift

Side A

Terrain (Jackman and Sanderson)

 

Side B

 Adrift (Jackman)

  

Notes:

Three tracks called 'Terrain' were recorded by David Jackman and Philip Sanderson in the Snatch Tapes 'studio' in Paddington, London during the summer of 1980. Side A of the 10 inch features one of these tracks, the second 'Terrain' track appeared on the Jackman/Sanderson tape 0 North in 1981, but has not been re-issued. The third 'Terrain' track became 'Offshore' as featured on the Ritual cassette. The B-side track is from the David Jackman Snatch Tape Adrift.

 

Review:

From: the Wire Magazine by David Keenan:

In light of Throbbing Gristle finally delivering on punkís broken promise to liberate music from "musicians", the UKís underground tape scene became the suppository for some of the most innovative and challenging noises that followed in punkís wake. At the vanguard was David Jackman. Between 1979 and 1983 he recorded a slew of cassettes under his own name before retreating from view under the name of Organum. Recorded in 1980 "Terrain" is a collaboration with Philip Sanderson who ran the Snatch cassette label. Constructed from what sounds like the slowly bowed bass strings of an electric guitar and looped percussion given halos of echo, itís an understated drone piece that eventually builds to nothing. The flipside "Adrift" is much more striking. Oddly melodic is assembled from a repeating bass and an assortment of looped tapes set in a bizarre waltz time. Over a slowly seesawing backing track muzzy choral blasts rise and fall in a pattern that could be the duoís miniature take on Tangerine Dreamís Zeit. "Adrift was originally the tittle track of a solo Jackman cassette released by Snatch in a run of 20 copies in 1981.Though Die Stadt pressings donít exactly reach mass circulation figures either, the tracks reappearance here is as welcome as it is surprising.

 

Storm Bugs - Up the Middle Down the Sides

Track Listing

Note: both sides of the LP are collaged into one long track

 

Side A (Mannequins Positive)

1. Lets see what happens if we try doing this (0.26)

2. Water Bottle Wasp (0.22)

3. Little Bob Minor (3.36)

4. Pity the Small (2.10)

5. Protoslap (0.58)

6. Thin Line Flash of Traffic (0.59)

7. Full English Breakfast(0.53)

8. 111 (4.03)

9. Skid Pan Buoy (2.59)

10. Holiday 82 (0.29)

 

Side B (Mannequins Negative)

1. Blackheath Episode (4.54)

2. Later that Same Evening (1.38)

3. Live at Top Shop (0.29)

4. Make Customers Matter (1.44)

5. In the Naked Girl's Majesty (1.01)

6. Wasp Bottle (4.11)

7. Our Main Objective (4.41)

 

Tracks A1, 3, 6, 9, B1, 2, 4, 7 by Philip Sanderson. Tracks A4, 5, 7, 8, 10, B3 by Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball. Tracks A2, B6 by Steven Ball. Track B5 by Philip Sanderson & David Jackman.

 

Credits:

Format: LP, 300 copies

Release Date: 2004

Label: Fusetron

Catalogue Number: Fuse 036

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball

 

Notes:

The sleeve features an anamorphic projection, to decipher use a small reflective tube (see rear of cover for diagram)

 

Side A (Mannequins Positive)

1. Lets see what happens if we try doing this (0.26)

Recorded Deptford 1979 (previously unreleased)

PS: Vocals, Guitar, Short Wave

SB: Guitar, Short Wave

 

2. Water Bottle Wasp (0.22)

Recorded Maidstone 1981 (previously unreleased)

SB: Bottle, Wasp, Water

 

3. Little Bob Minor (3.36)

Recorded New Cross 1979 (From the Dark Cuttings cassette)

PS: VCS3

 

4. Pity the Small (2.10)

Recorded Strood 1980 (previously unreleased)

PS: Loops

SB: Loops and Vocal

 

5. Protoslap (0.58)

Recorded Elephant & Castle 1981 (previously unreleased)

PS: Vibes, Dr Rhythm

SB: Drums, Dr Rhythm

 

6. Thin Line Flash of Traffic (0.59)

Recorded Paddington 1980 (From Snatch 2)

PS: Scratched Records, Vocals, Guitar, Short Wave

 

7. Full English Breakfast(0.53)

Recorded Deptford 1978 (previously unreleased)

PS: Guitar, Short Wave

SB: Guitar, Short Wave

 

8. 111 (4.03)

Recorded Paddington 1980 (previously unreleased)

PS: Ring Modulator Loops

 

9. Skid Pan Buoy (2.59)

Recorded Deptford 1979 (From Dark Cuttings)

PS: Scratched Records, Guitar, Vocals

 

10. Holiday 82 (0.29)

Recorded Elephant & Castle 1981 (previously unreleased)

PS: Dr Rhythm

SB: Vibes

 

Side B (Mannequins Negative)

1. Blackheath Episode (4.54)

Recorded New Cross 1980 (From A Safe Substitute)

PS: VCS3

 

2. Later that Same Evening (1.38)

Recorded Deptford 1978 ((From Dark Cuttings)

PS: Guitar, Short Wave

 

3. Live at Top Shop (0.29)

Recorded Deptford 1978 ((previously unreleased)

PS: Vocals, Oscillator

 

4. Make Customers Matter (1.44)

Recorded Deptford 1980 (From Gift)

PS: Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica, Scratched Records

 

5. In the Naked Girl's Majesty (1.01)

Recorded Paddington 1980 ((previously unreleased)

PS: Vocals, Loops

David Jackman: Loops

 

6. Wasp Bottle (4.11)

Recorded Maidstone 1981 (previously unreleased)

SB: Bottle, Wasp, Water

 

7. Our Main Objective (4.41)

Recorded New Cross 1980 (From the Table Matters EP)

PS: VCS3, Vocals, Guitar

 

Philip Sanderson - Seal Pool Sounds Limited Edition Box

A box set version of the Seal Pool CD limited to 25 copies. As well as the main Seal Pool CD, it includes an additional CD-R with two long drone tracks. All the boxes are hand made in Japan by John Podeszwa and feature various photographs and ephemera sourced by him.

Tracklisting 

CD as per regular Seal Pool Sounds

CD-R:

Fluorescent

Osaka by Night

 

Credits

Format: CD 25 of 500 copies, CD-R/Box, 25 copies

Release Date: 2005

Label: Seal Pool

Catalogue Number: None

Sleeve Design: John Podeszwa

Storm Bugs - A Safe Substitute (CD)

1. Mesh of Wire/Objective/Car Situations/Mesh of Wire (Reprise)

2. Hodge

3. Solely From

4. Blackheath Episode

Bonus Tracks

5. He Rose up Again

6. 333

7. Table Matters Soundtrack

 

Philip Sanderson: VCS3 (1-5,7), vocals (1), tape loops (1,6,7), short wave radio (2), guitar (7)

Steven Ball: vocals (1), percussion (1,6), tape loops (6) 

Sarah Pomeroy: guitar/VCS3 (1)

All tracks by Sanderson except "Car Situations" and "333" by Sanderson & Ball 

 

Credits:

Format: CD, 300 copies

Release Date: 2020

Label: Klanggalerie

Catalogue Number: gg337

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball. The sleeve images are from the Storm Bugs Super 8 film Table Matters (1980) by Steven Ball

 

Notes:

Originally released on cassette by Snatch Tapes in 1980, this 40th anniversary re-issue on CD by Klanggalerie contains a gently remastered version of the original tape plus three bonus tracks, two of which ("333" and "Table Matters Soundtrack") have not previously been released.

Purchase this CD

Philip Sanderson - Rumble of The Ruins

Side A

1 Rumble of The Ruins 02:23

2 Window Sill 02:18

3 The Elephant's Eye 03:00

4 Raven Row (You Know How it Goes) 03:06

5  Funicular Freedom 04:11

Side B

6 Au Coin Du Jardin 4.34

7 Funny Money 03:35

8 If You Take a Table 02:31

9 The Golden Fleet 04:12

10 Broken Morning 06:58

 

All tracks by Philip Sanderson

 

Credits:

Format: Cassette, 25 numbered copies

Release Date: 2020

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: tch 219

Design: Layout/ paintings by Philip Sanderson

Reviews:

Review by Ed Pinsent from the Sound Projector 27/07/2020

Last heard from Philip Sanderson with his very good LP On One Of These Bends, lovingly presented as a vinyl edition in an expensive jacket by Séance Centre of Canada. Today’s Sanderson item is Rumble Of The Ruins (SNATCH TAPES TCH 2020), a Bandcamp-only thing with a cover featuring a painting by the man himself – he seems to be making a venture in exploring the history of 20th-century European fine art on his own terms, turning in a mysterious tableau that contains faint traces of Paul Klee, Léger, and de Chirico.

 

Musically, Sanderson is getting back to what he does so well – songs and electronica, a form of synthop with drum machines and treated vocals, produced in a very eccentric DIY post-punk manner. This is quite different to the lush, soundtrack-y productions we heard on On One Of These Bends, and there’s a lot to be said for the immediacy of these concise and assured ditties, most of them clocking in at traditional pop-song length of three minutes. Sanderson may make it seem easy, almost throwaway at times, but I suspect there is a lot of craft underlying these songs, both in terms of composition, lyrical content, and sheer effort spent programming and overdubbing (or however he created it). Each song sounds both jaunty and slightly unsettling in equal measure; I’m not sure what is causing this impression, but while the rhythms are upbeat and foot-tappingly catchy, the melodies keep veering towards a darkened minor key, and the song delivery has a strange urgency to it.

 

That’s not to mention the lyrics, which today strike me as fairly bonkers (in a good way) – like an update on the king of balmy, red wine-soaked laissez-faire, Kevin Ayers. If I explored this pathway any further, we might end up making a case for situating Philip Sanderson in a line with other 1970s English songwriting eccentrics, such as Robert Wyatt, Eno, Pete Sinfield and Peter Hammill. I mention this as I think it’s a dimension of Sanderson’s considerable skillset which isn’t spotlighted too often, as he’s more often pegged as a cassette band / post-punk / noise artist. Personally, I also prefer his song-based work to the all-instrumental music of records like Seal Pool Sounds (2005). From 15th January 2020.

 

www.thesoundprojector.com/2020/07/27/fragments-shored-against-my-ruins/

 

Review by Neil Kulkarni The Wire September 2020

How odd l was listening to Hood's Cold House the other day and it's amazing how close Rumble Of The Ruins by Storm Bugs' Philip Sanderson shears to that period of post-rock where underground rock fans admitted they loved both Justin Timberlake and Disco Inferno. There's a similar fondness for startlingly poppy textures, a similar pleasure in the detournement of those sounds for determinedly art rock ends.

 

Sanderson's voice- check out the Canterbury via Medway psychness of "Window Sill" - now has a wonderfully unmannered, conversational feel, and the same talents in collage and subtle derailment of sources that he's made so evident in his Storm Bugs work are still present. It's the decision making within that process that's key, and Sanderson knows what to treat and what to leave untouched. So the poppiest choruses get deliberately amplified until they get glassy eyed and unsettling, the strange sonic detritus that populates these songs always executed and jettisoned before anything can detract from the melodic strength. "The Elephants Eye" and “Raven Row (You Know How It Goes)" deliver a flavour of what Kevin Ayers might cook up if he were alive and forced to work with the Residents.