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 - 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'.

Storm Bugs - Supplementary Benefit

Side A 

1 Cash Wash 1:41

2 Eat Good Beans 1:59

3 Make Customers Matter 2:09

4 Window Shopping 2:06

5 Our Main Objective 4:44

6 Car Situations 3:20

7 Tin 2:54

8 Aboulia 19 1:06

Side B

1 Hodge 6:41

2 Slip Slap 1:36

3 Hiemal (And She Blew) 4:51

4 He Rose Up Again 3:08

5 Slow Along the Wire 1:24

6 Blackheath Episode 4:44

 

Tracks A1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, B1, 3, 4, 5, 6 by Philip Sanderson. Tracks A6, 7, B2 by Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball.

 

Credits:

Format: LP, 500 numbered copies

Release Date: 2007

Label: Vinyl on Demand 

Catalogue Number: VOD44

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball. Photography by Steven Ball

 

Notes:

Side A of the LP comprises full length versions of the the first two Storm Bugs singles; namely the Table Matters EP (1980) and the Metamorphose single (1981). Side B contains tracks made with the unique british synthesizer the VCS3. The VCS3 has a matrix pin patch bay in which any module can be connected to any other module, resulting in complex feedback loops and unexpected modulations. The VCS3 tracks are all taken from original Snatch Tapes cassette releases.

 

Review:

Review by Ed Pinsent from: the Sound Projector magazine - 16th Issue.

An extremely satisfying and coherent spin, this excellent LP compiles some of the finest Storm Bugs work released on vinyl and cassette during 1978- 1981. Some of the cuts have appeared on that previous CD compilation Let's Go Outside and Get it Over, but this LP scoops the prize for being more comprehensive and complete, and laying out the songs in a meaningful order. It also follows a schema of sorts ñ side B contains all electronic music, side A represents the 'clunky bedroom' side of the duo, Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball.

 

The 'Table Matters' EP was released on vinyl by Loop Records in 1980; it's five tracks of edgy, clattering mayhem, made with a combination of electronics, radios, guitars, tape loops, percussion and much more. Effectively a Sanderson solo set, this EP displays wild and rugged invention compressed into short bursts of electrifying genius; four of the cuts are only two minutes apiece. Using found spoken word tapes and warped voicings, Storm Bugs deliver something that is not so much a critique of consumerism, as a semi-nightmarish distorted view of shopping in England in 1980, replete with Kwik-Save signs, shoddy goods, and futile attempts to keep customers happy. ëTable Mattersí is almost their Santa Dog; it's a perfect cryptic statement, almost inexhaustible in content, transpires in less than 15 minutes and leaves you feeling troubled for days. Great!

 

We also got both sides of the 'Car Situations' single, of which the flipside 'Tin' is something Sanderson refers to as pseudo-rockabilly using a percussion loop arrived at by very devious means. Yet 'Tin' is as catchy a pop tune as they ever recorded, with some delightful guitar riffing from Ball.

 

Side 2 of the LP features six examples of their work with the VCS3 synth, the Sythi-Bug, and short-wave radio; these are rescued from cassettes released on Sanderson's Snatch Tapes label, including Dark Cuttings, Gift, Storm Bugs and A Safe Substitute. Generally longer than the 'poppy' material on the first side, these extremely strange instrumentals give the impression of something infinite and endless, cautious explorations made across foggy and unknown territories. Both 'Hodge' and 'Blackheath Episode' are exceptionally strong experiments in electronic music, but by the time you're stranded in the middle of 'He Rose Up Again', you will be feeling almost dizzy with the doubt, fear and sheer bewilderment that seems to be embedded in every minute of this music. Ball's abstract scrapy guitar work on 'Hiemal (And She Blew)' is most notable, and it's a shame there aren't more examples of that metallic guitar noise combined so effectively with the VCS3 work; it's one of those rare moments when the separate contributions of the Bugs are fused together perfectly. Sanderson's edgier guitar work is demonstrated on 'Slow Along the Wire', a 90-second miniature of trembling angst.

 

File this alongside the estimable Snatch Paste compilation LP and we have an emerging picture of the Storm Bugs / Snatch Tapes aesthetic. There may not be much of this material available, but Sanderson and Ball are to be commended for the very inventive ways in which they explored their ideas, and they have rendered unique visions of the psychic underside of England, visions as palpable as the monochromatic photograph (by Ball) on the back cover which celebrates the horrors of suburbia with an enquiring eye. credits

 

Various - Your Song, My Foot! Vol. 3: The 1979 Edition

Side A

Storm Bugs Full Moon in My Pocket (Tail Light) 

The Righteous Yeah Fite Dem Back 

Tomutonttu Dernière Croisade 

Infinite Article The Void 

German Army Do The Dog 

Strotter Inst. 79 Dehinnorstuuww 

The Dead Mauriacs Take A Card, Imagine A Gas, See Music As Escaping Water, It's A Test 

Natalia Beylis Demoncrats 

 

Side B

Phew The Void 

Mike Cooper Money Jungle 

Ed Bear Various Times 

The Pheromoans Cold Turkey 

Stuart Chalmers Untitled 

The Driver Of The Hearse Interzone 

Storm Bugs Full Moon In My Pocket (Port Sight) 

Gen Ken* & Julian Cartwright High Pressure Days

 

Credits:

Format: Cassette compiled by Daniel Blumin as WFMU fundraiser

Release Date: 2019

Label: None

Catalogue Number: None

Sleeve Design: Mayuko Fujino, illustration by John Godbert 

 

Notes:

The tracks on the album are all cover versions of songs that apperaed on debut LPs in 1979. The cover illustration is by John Godbert, the artist who drew the cover of The Fall's 1979 LP - Live at the Witch Trials. Of the design John says, "It’s based on a wooden statue of a female figure that was found in a loch in the Scottish Highlands in the 19th century. She was a goddess who protected the loch & turned out to be 5,000 yrs old. This is very “Witch Trials” related, and MES would have liked it."

 

The tape includes two versions by The Sorm Bugs of the Swell Maps track "Full Moon In My Pocket" recorded in New Cross and Elephant & Castle.

Various Artists - ContraPop Festival 2018: The Third And Tidal Report

CD1

1 Laraaji - By The Laws Of Manifestation

2 Flower-Corsano Duo - Cocaa Mouth Paralysis

3 Sacred Paws - ust Kids

4 Massicot - Suri Gruti

5 Teeth Of The Sea- Field Punishment

6 DJ Airplane and Spaceship* - The Drum Slave

7 Molly Nilsson - American Express

 

CD2

1 Otherworld - Forgotten Light VII

2 Dave Kane, Alex Neilson, Chris Sharke, and Alex Ward

3 Yuri Landman - On The 1st Of Feb

4 The Storm Bugs - Take It To The Top

5  Adrian Sherwood - Just Programme It

6 Coldnose - Memories

7 Margenrot - Aghves / Zangezur / Spitak

 

Credits:

Format: CD

Release Date: 2019

Label: Extra Normal

Catalogue Number: TXN 010

Sleeve Design: Oliver Barrett

 

Notes:

ContraPop is a music festival which takes place in a marquee on the baech in Ramsgate, Kent, UK. To accompany the festival a CD is produced showcasing tracks from the previous year's festival, thus this 2019 CD includes the live performance of 'Take It To The Top' by The Storm Bugs from 2018.

 

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

 

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

Various Artists: Close To The Noise Floor: Formative UK Electronica 1975-1984

DISC ONE:

1. FIVE TIMES OF DUST – Computer Bank

2. THE KLINGONS – R.A.M.

3. CHRIS AND COSEY – Re-Education Through Labour

4. MALCOLM BROWN – Sedation Strokes

5. STORM BUGS – Little Bob Minor

6. THOMAS LEER – Tight As A Drum

7. BLANCMANGE – Holiday Camp

8. INNER CITY STATIC – Fractured Smile

9. WE BE ECHO – Sexuality

10.BOURBONESE QUALK – God With Us

11.NAGAMATZU Faith

12.O YUKI CONJUGATE – Disco Song

13.BRITISH ELECTRIC FOUNDATION – Optimum Chant

14.KEVIN HARRISON – All Night Long

15.VOICE OF AUTHORITY – Stopping And Starting

 

DISC TWO:

1. COLIN POTTER – I Am Your Shadow

2. BRITISH STANDARD UNIT – D’Ya Think I’m Sexy?

3. FIVE TIMES OF DUST – The Single Off The Album

4. SPÖÖN FAZER – Back To The Beginning

5. GERRY AND THE HOLOGRAMS – Gerry And The Holograms

6. THE PASSAGE – Drugface

7. JOHN FOXX – A New Kind Of Man

8. 100% MANMADE FIBRE – Green For Go

9. THOSE LITTLE ALIENS – Sentimental

10.FINAL PROGRAM – Protect And Survive

11.THE HUMAN LEAGUE – Being Boiled

12.INSTANT AUTOMATONS – New Muzak

13.CULTURAL AMNESIA – Materialistic Man

14.WORLDBACKWARDS – (Leaving Me) Now

15.ALAN BURNHAM – Music To Save The World By

16.ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK – Almost

17.EYELESS IN GAZA – Kodak Ghosts Run Amok

18.SCHLEIMER K – Broken Vein

19.NATIVE EUROPE – The Distance From Köln

 

DISC THREE:

1. ZORCH – Adrenalin (Return of the Elohim Pt 1)

2. SEA OF WIRES – Robot Dance

3. RON BERRY – Sea Of Tranquility

4. MFH – Mistral

5. ADRIAN SMITH – Joe Goes To New York

6. MARK SHREEVE – Embryo (Extract)

7. EG OBLIQUE GRAPH – Triptych

8. CARL MATTHEWS – Encounter

9. PAUL NAGLE – Ynys Scaith

10.O YUKI CONJUGATE – Sedation

11.KONSTRUKTIVIST – Western Vein

12.ATTRITION – Dead Of Night (Excerpt)

 

DISC FOUR:

1. THROBBING GRISTLE – What A Day

2. A TENT – No Way Of Knowing

3. PORTION CONTROL – Go For The Throat

4. DC3 – Eco Beat

5. RENALDO AND THE LOAF – Dying Inside

6. BLAH BLAH BLAH – In The Army

7. LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – God Speed

8. MUSLIMGAUZE – Muslin Gauze Muslim Prayer

9. SUISSE – Live At Longborne

10.ALIEN BRAINS – Menial Disorders, Extract B2

11.STORM BUGS – Himeal (And She Blew)

12.THIRD DOOR FROM THE LEFT – In The Room

13.AL ROBERTSON – Dignity Of Labour

14.bcGilbert, gLewis, russell Mills – Mzui (Extract)

 

Credits:

Format: 4 X CD plus booklet . Also issued as double LP.

Release Date: 2016

Label: Cherry Red 

Catalogue Number: CRCDBOX24

 

Notes:

A 4CD, 60-track set exploring the origins of electronica in the UK with a 48pp booklet with artists' sleeve notes and an essay by Dave Henderson. From the Cherry Red Press Release: "Featuring tracks from key figures from the cassette label underground alongside early releases by future stars of the movement." Alonside the likes of the Human League you get two Storm Bugs tracks as well as Alien Brains, Cultural Amnesia, and Sea of Wires all of whom appeared on early Snatch Tapes compilations. An edited double LP version was also released containing one Storm Bugs track.

 

MESSTHETICS GREATEST HISS: the DIY cassette-scene vol.1

1. Jelly Babies - 'Soylent Green'

2. 391 - 'Jet Plane'

3. Instant Automatons - 'Gillian is Normal'

4. Event Group - 'Concussion Edit'

5. Missing Persons - 'Sign of The Times'

6. Danny & The Dressmakers - 'Eggs on Legs'

7. Gravity Craze - 'Song For M'

8. Farming Jim - 'Cats in The Kitchen'

9. Chromosomes - 'Hi Fi Know How'

10. Mike Jones - 'Reckless Policies'

11. Living Dead No.5 - 'Never Give In'

12. Storm Bugs - 'Car Situations (Nasal Passage)'

13. Colin Potter - 'Power'

14. Digital Dinosaurs - 'Baby Snakes'

15. Twizlers - 'We are The Twizlers'

16. Casual Labourers - 'A Lapse is Due'

17. Midnight Circus - 'Suburbia Nervosa'

18. Aconite - 'The Truth about Cable'

19. Milkshake Melon - 'Walk Oates Walk!'

20. Cultural Amnesia - 'Repetition for This World'

21. The Get - 'The Leaders'

22. Stripey Zebras - 'Walking Home'

23. Funhouse - 'Teenage Bedrooms'

24. Danny & The Dressmakers - 'Kif Kif's Magic Hat'

25. Chimp Eats Bananas - 'Shopping List'

 

Bonus MP3's

Chromosomes - 'Rot all Rulers'

Dean Johnson - 'Another Letter'

Digital Dinosaurs - 'Elephant Germs'

Farming Jim - 'New Years Eve'

Jelly Babies - 'Candy Bricks'

 

Credits:

Format: CD. 500 copies

Release Date: 2008

Label: Hyped to Death

Catalogue Number: Messthetics 10

 

Notes:

Includes a 24-page booklet with histories, photos, artifacts and an essay from Mick Sinclair, who wrote the original Cassette Pets column for Sounds.

 

The Storm Bugs track is 'Car Situations (Nasal Passage)' from the A Safe Substitute Cassette.

 

Storm Bugs - Metamorphose (Tin/Car Situations)

Side A 

Tin 

 

Side B

Car Situations

Both tracks by Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball. Philip Sanderson: loops, vocals, treatments. Steven Ball: guitar, bass, lead vocals.

 

Credits:

Format,: 7 inch single, 1,470 copies

Release Date: 1981

Label: L'invitation au Suicide 

Catalogue Number: L'invitation 0100

Sleeve and label Design: Yann Farcy

 

Notes:

Whereas the first Storm Bugs single was recorded by Sanderson on a two-track Revox tape machine the second Storm Bugs single was a collaborative affair between Sanderson and Ball using a multitrack recorder. Sanderson first created a drum loop from a bongo using various tape collage techniques. Over this he developed a rough guitar part and the vocal line.  Ball honed the guitar part into a more formal chord sequence and wrote a bass part. The two then recorded and mixed the song on an 8-track multitrack tape machine in an afternoon. The music for side B was built up from layers of tape loops made by Sanderson on top of which the vocal line was added by Ball. The lyrics to Car Situations had been written by Sanderson and Ball in Paddington using cut-up phrases from sources such as John Cage's book Silence. The release was the first on the French L'invitation au Suicide label. The single came in a 10-inch sleeve entitled Metamorphose. The design differed considerably from that which the band had agreed with the label and was disowned by them.

Storm Bugs - Table Matters

Side 1

Cash Wash

Eat Good Beans

Make Customers Matter

 

Side 2

Window Shopping 

Our Main Objective

 

All tracks by Philip Sanderson.

 

Credits:

Format: 7-inch EP. 500 copies.

Release Date: 1980

Label: Loop records

Catalogue Number: 

Sleeve Design & Photography: Steven Ball

 

Notes:

The Storm Bugs 7-inch EP on black vinyl in a printed cover with white labels featuring a small sticker. The cut up sleeve shows photographs taken in and around Charring Cross Rd circa 1979. The image of the mannequins in the top left and right corner was used for the labels of Up the Middle Down the Sides. The image at the top of the page is of the printed sleeve but there were two other alternate photocopied sleeve designs. The records were pressed a couple of months before the printed sleeves were ready thus the first 50 copies (or so) came with a folded screen printed insert. One or two copies were also sold with one-off collages by Sanderson. The remaining 450 copies have the printed sleeve.

Storm Bugs - Lets Go Outside and Get it Over

 

Track listing:

1. Eat Good Beans

2. Hodge

3. Dull Sound of Breath

4. He Rose Up Again 

5. And She Blew

6. Slip Slap

7. Car Situations

8. Aboulia

9. Window Shopping 

10. A Safe Substitute

Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 9 by Philip Sanderson, tracks 3, 6, 7,10 by Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball

 

Credits:

Format:CD, 500 copies

Release Date: 2001

Label: Snatch Tapes

Catalogue Number: TCH 213

Sleeve Design: Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball

 

Notes:

A CD compilation of the Bugs finer moments digitally remastered from the original Snatch Tapes cassette and vinyl releases. CD now sold out.

 

Reviews:

From: the Sound Projector, 9th Issue by Ed Pinsent

"Storm Bugs ingeniously exploited the distorted vibrations they could tweak out of domestic hi-fi gear. With such primitive resources it's clear that there was some sharp creative judgement going on, because none of these ten tracks ever sound like two teenage herberts mucking around with biscuit tins and their Dad's stereogram. There are superficial echoes of This Heat and early Cabaret Voltaire but the skilfully layered textures of wireless interference, manipulated voices and faltering rhythmic clumps do justify the claim to a unique Storm Bugs sound. The track Window Shopping sucks you backwards through a time tunnel into the dawning Thatcher era, its clattering voices crowds of consumerist drones bustle through Oxford Street in the 1980 Christmas rush."

 

From: Gullboy

"Storm Bugs are an anomaly. How could such sounds, radically challenging the accepted texture of electronic music, have been recorded over 20 years ago? And how come nobody has ever heard of them? The tracks on Let's Go Outside and Get It Over... exhibit Storm Bugs' spacious, reverberating grittiness. Howled vocals shift from front to background in the midst of industrial pounding percussion loops, urgent echoing monotones and an array of tinny sound effects. The quiet moments on these songs are underlayed by disturbing mechanical creeks and muted primal thuds that evoke the cynical futurism of Fritz Lang or George Orwell. As complex and foreign as much of these recordings sound, the hand-made, DIY ethic of the group's production is distinctly present.".

 

From: Other Music

"I first became aware of the Storm Bugs due to their inclusion on the recent (and wonderfully dodgy) I Hate The Pop Group compilation... ...they were spiritual forefathers to Oval and today's Clicks & Cuts generation... ...I thrive on this kind of stuff and this is like uncovering a lost NWW album; my only complaint would be that these guys probably have enough material to fill five CDs.

 

Various - I Hate the Pop Group

Side A

A1 Prats - Prats 2 

A2 The Janet And The Johns - Let Bygones Be Bygones 

A3 Brent Wilcox - 8 Parts Leisure 

A4 Noh Mercy - Caucasian Guilt 

A5 Storm Bugs - Cash Wash / Eat Good Bean 

A6 The Door And The Window - I Hate Sound 

A7 AK Process - Post Town

  

Side B

B1 Men/Eject -Draw 

B2 Sellouts - Ballad Off The Fuck Off Records 

B3 Danny And The Dressmakers -Truth About Unemployment 

B4 E.g Oblique Graph - Black Cloth Behind De Gaulle's Wax Head 

B5 File Under Pop -Heathrow 

B6 Band T Plus Instruments - Words 

B7 Orchid Spangiafora -Trapped Heir Suite Part One 

B8 Doof (2) - (Treat Me Like) The Man I Am / Brighton Pt One

 

Credits:

Format: LP, 300 copies

Release Date: 2000

Label: Vertical Slum Records

Catalogue Number: R-44

Sleeve Design: Unknown

 

Notes:

Bootleg compilation of UK & US DIY singles from the 70s and early 80s