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 –
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. Table
Matters 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.
Ed Pinsent The
Sound Projector Issue 16
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