Storm Bugs are an English post punk band formed in 1978 in

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England, by Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball who had met in the

Medway Towns Medway is a unitary authority district and conurbation in Kent, South East England. It had a population of 278,016 in 2019. The unitary authority was formed in 1998 when Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with the Borough of Gillingham to for ...

, England. The band have been linked to a number of genres including:

cassette culture The cassette culture (also known as the tape/cassette scene or cassette underground) refers to the practices associated with amateur production and distribution of music and sound art on compact cassette that emerged in the mid-1970s. The cassett ...

industrial music Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initiall ...

and

DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...

. Storm Bugs were initially active between 1978 and 1982 and reformed in 2001.

1978–82

Sanderson had experimented with tape recorders whilst still at school, after moving to London in 1978 he began to get out of hours access to the electronic music studio at Goldsmiths College (equipped with the EMS VCS3 synthesizer) and also purchased a Revox reel to reel tape recorder setting up a DIY home studio. It was using these facilities that Sanderson recorded much of the Storm Bugs output from 1978 to 1980 with Ball designing the artwork for the releases. The first Storm Bugs release was on Snatch 1 on the Snatch Tapes cassette label. Snatch Tapes was part of the then burgeoning

scene and also released tapes by David Jackman (later of Organum), and Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey as well as compilations with tracks by amongst others: the

Lemon Kittens Lemon Kittens are a post-punk band, formed in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Berkshire, England in 1977, by Karl Blake and Gary Thatcher. The cast of the band revolved quite frequently, notably counting among its membership musicians such as Danie ...

, Alien Brains,

Cultural Amnesia Cultural Amnesia (CA) are an English post-punk music group, first active between 1979 and 1983 as participants in the so-called cassette culture of the late 1970s and early 1980s in the UK. During this first period the band released three cass ...

Orior, Sea of Wires, and the Beach Surgeons (led by a young

Graham Massey Graham Vernon Massey (born 4 August 1960 in Manchester) is a British record producer, musician, and remixer. Early career He was a member of experimental jazz rock group Biting Tongues, once signed to Factory Records. After recording with the ...

, later of

808 State 808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester, taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine. They were formed by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson. They released their debut album, '' New ...

). Storm Bugs released three cassettes albums on Snatch Tapes: A Safe Substitute (1980), Storm Bugs (1980) and Gift (1981). In 1980 the band released their first vinyl record the Table Matters EP on Loop Records (UK). In 1981 Storm Bugs released their second single an industrial

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

7-inch called "Metamorphose", on the French L'invitation au Suicide label. Ball provided lead vocals on both sides of the record. Further recordings were made in 1981/1982 but not released with the band effectively going into hibernation for 20 years. Sanderson and Ball however continued to collaborate on other projects including in 1988 the fil
Green on the Horizon

2000 – 2013, Rediscovery

Storm Bugs were rediscovered in 2000 when they were included on the bootleg LP ''I Hate the Pop Group'', on Vertical Slum Records. A year later Snatch Tapes reactivated and released a compilation of some of the bands finer moments from the past, entitled ''Let's Go Outside And Get It Over'', this was the start of a re-issue programme that saw much of Storm Bugs original material being rereleased on vinyl. The following year, 2002 rare and previously unreleased recordings were collected by the Fusetron label, and released on an LP called ''Up The Middle Down The Sides''. In the same year the band also released a 4-track EP of new material called ''The Bugs Are Back'' on the Austrian label Klanggalerie. In 2006 the German label

Vinyl On Demand Vinyl On Demand is a record label that targets vinyl collectors of 1970's and 80's minimal synth, industrial, and avant-garde music. Along with sales to distributors, Vinyl On Demand provides a subscription service. Most releases are limited to ...

issued a Snatch Tapes compilation called ''Snatch Paste'' and this was followed in 2007 by a Storm Bugs LP entitled ''Supplementary Benefit'' featuring the two 7 inch singles as well as tracks from the early cassette releases. 2008 saw "Car Situations (Nasal Passage)" included on the ''Messthetics Greatest Hiss'' compilation whilst in 2011 the A Safe Substitute cassette on Snatch Tapes was reissued on red vinyl by Harbinger Records. In 2013, the track "Cash Wash/Eat Good Beans" was included on the seventh and final Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music compilation on

Sub Rosa ''Sub rosa'' (New Latin for "under the rose") denotes secrecy or confidentiality. The rose has an ancient history as a symbol of secrecy. History In Hellenistic and later Roman mythology, roses were associated with secrecy because Cupid ga ...

. In 2013, Storm Bugs made their back catalogue available digitally on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

and released their first new material in ten years the digital single (or dingle as they named it) "No Nothingness/Triangulation" with an accompanying video. Subsequent dingles were released by the band and brought together on the 2017 release Certified Original and Vintage Fakes.

Live performances

Storm Bugs live appearances have been rare. Un an unadvertised performance was given at Maidstone Art college in 1979 and a further performance in the summer of 1980 in Brenchley Gardens Maidstone, Kent. On that occasion the band included David Jackman on esraj. In 2012 Storm Bugs performed live for the first time in 30 years at the Rammel Weekender in Nottingham alongside other acts such as the New Blockaders and the Sleaford Mods. Reviewing the Weekender in the Wire Magazine, Storm Bugs's contribution was judged by Derek Walmsley to be "everything that's right about the weekend". Other gigs followed in Paris and Belgium and in 2018 at the Contrapop festival in Ramsgate.

Critical reception

Storm Bugs' initial releases were reviewed in the Garageland and DIY Corner sections of the

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

and

Sounds In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

and in

ZigZag A zigzag is a pattern made up of small corners at variable angles, though constant within the zigzag, tracing a path between two parallel lines; it can be described as both jagged and fairly regular. In geometry, this pattern is described as a ...

magazine however the re-released material has attracted far more attention including from writers such as

Simon Reynolds Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his professional career on the staff of ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He has since gone on to freelance and publish a number of full-length books on music ...

and

Ed Pinsent Ed Pinsent (born 1960, Liverpool, England) is a British cartoonist, artist, and writer. Biography Ed Pinsent is the son of the classical scholar John Pinsent and was brought up in the city of Liverpool. Pinsent has written and drawn his own sm ...

along with coverage in the

Wire magazine ''The Wire'' (or simply ''Wire'') is a British music magazine publishing out of London, which has been issued monthly in print since 1982. Its website launched in 1997, and an online archive of its entire back catalog became available to subs ...

including a two-page feature in th
October 2015 issue (380)
Storm Bugs tracks have also received numerous plays on alternative radio stations such as

WFMU WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station, licensed to East Orange, New Jersey. Since 1998 its studios and operating facilities have been headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. It broadcasts locally at 91.1 Mhz FM, in ...

and

Resonance FM Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station specialising in the arts run by the London Musicians' Collective (LMC). The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and ...

Discography

Albums, singles and EPs

*''A Safe Substitute'' – 1980 (Cassette on Snatch Tapes) *''Table Matters'' – 1980 (7 inch EP on Loop records) *''Storm Bugs'' – 1980 (Cassette on Snatch Tapes) *''Gift'' – 1981 (Cassette on Snatch Tapes) *''Metamorphose'' – 1981 (7 inch single on L'Invitation au Suicide records) *''Lets go outside and get it over'' – 2001 (CD on Snatch Tapes) *The Bugs are Back'' – 2002 (7 inch EP on Klanggalerie records) *''Up the middle down the sides'' – 2005 (LP on Fuestron records) *''Supplementary Benefit'' – 2007 (LP on

Vinyl on Demand Vinyl On Demand is a record label that targets vinyl collectors of 1970's and 80's minimal synth, industrial, and avant-garde music. Along with sales to distributors, Vinyl On Demand provides a subscription service. Most releases are limited to ...

records) *''A Safe Substitute'' – 2011 (LP on Harbinger records – re-issue of the 1980 cassette) *''No Nothingness/Triangulation'' – 2013 (Digital single on Storm Bugs/Bandcamp) *''Certified Original & Vintage Fakes'' – 2017 (CDR on Snatch Tapes) *''A Safe Substitute'' – 2020 (40th anniversary CD re-issue on Klanggalerie) *''Best Before 2027'' – 2023 (Digital release via Storm Bugs Bandcamp page)

Compilation appearances

*"Hodge" on ''Snatch 1'' (1979) *"Thin Line Flash of Traffic" on ''Snatch 2'' (1980) *"Cash Wash/Eat Good Beans" on ''I Hate the Pop Group'' (2000) *"Internal Use Only" on ''Fdsixtyfive'' (2003) *"Dull Sound of Breath Inside A Tin" on ''Snatch Paste'' (2006) *"Car Situations (Nasal Passage)" on ''Messthetics Greatest Hiss: An Introduction to the DIY Cassette Scene 1979–1982'' (2008) *"Cash Wash/Eat Good Beans" on '' An Anthology Of Noise And Electronic Music / Seventh And Last A-chronology 1930–2012 '' (2013) *"Little Bob Minor" and "Hiemal" on '' Close To The Noise Floor (Formative UK Electronica 1975–1983)'' (2016) *"Take it To The Top" on ''Contra Pop Festival 2018: The Third And Tidal Report'' (2019) *"Full Moon in My Pocket (Tail Light)" and "Full Moon in My Pocket (Port Sight)" on ''Your Song, My Foot! Vol. 3: The 1979 Edition'' (2019) Discography sources: Discogs,''Discogs''
Retrieved 15 August 2013.

References

External links

Storm Bugs Bandcamp Page

Snatch Tapes web Site
{{Authority control English post-punk music groups Cassette culture 1970s–1990s