Monday, November 23, 2009

STORM BUGS-A SAFE SUBSTITUTE, TAPE, 1980, U.K.


Many thanks to Philip Sanderson, one half of these legendary fringe dwellers and proprietor of the equally renowned Snatch Tapes for providing this crucial lost piece of the Storm Bugs puzzle, a follow up to my post of his Carriage Return project. Dunno whether this tape or their Table Matter single was officially their debut (they're both listed as 1980), but this is everything a fan of left field D.I.Y. song structure perversion (U.K. stylee) could hope for. Much of what's heard on A Safe Substitute (fragments of which would re-appear elsewhere) were generated from that great old British analog beast, the VCS3 synthesizer, a machine used to more tonal ends by the likes of Franco Battiato and Pink Floyd and here providing swaying pendulums of corroded bloop, greyscale warble and hollowed out rhythms triggered from filter fucked arpeggiations, upon which they graft passages of alternately morose and plangent song structure fragmentation.

NOTE: Link removed as this is due for reissue shortly on Harbinger Sound.

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15 comments:

  1. KafkaligulaNovember 24, 2009 at 2:18 AM

    REALLY enjoyed this tape! The sounds come in so heavily and strangely, almost organic while bits of catchy loops fade in and out and start to mutate. Excellent post!

    -Potter

    ReplyDelete
  2. fuzztunnelNovember 24, 2009 at 8:14 AM

    Yay, Storm Bugs! Thank you! All I have is the Fusetron LP and was very keen to hear more!

    ReplyDelete
  3. RemNovember 24, 2009 at 1:20 PM

    Thank, will be very interesting to listen to this tape

    ReplyDelete
  4. weight lossNovember 24, 2009 at 1:48 PM

    This blog have great content and really possible to get helpful information.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousNovember 27, 2009 at 4:31 PM

    Sanderson's "Seal Pool Sounds" CD is very similar to this. In fact, some of the tracks are from the storm bug era.

    www.seal-pool.org

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousNovember 28, 2009 at 8:09 AM

    Deafinitely, the best blog in the world, yours.
    Greetings from Spain,
    Jorge

    ReplyDelete
  7. finnDecember 5, 2009 at 2:39 AM

    Bless you for this, never thought I'd see it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. summervineDecember 11, 2009 at 2:09 AM

    very beautiful music... this should be available on vinyl!!!
    many thanks

    ReplyDelete
  9. Philip SandersonJune 17, 2010 at 9:25 AM

    I'm pleased to say that A Safe Substitute will be available later this year on blood red vinyl from Harbinger Sound

    ReplyDelete
  10. vdoandsoundJune 17, 2010 at 11:36 AM

    Philip-That's great news! Did you want me to take down the link for this then?

    Eric

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  11. Philip SandersonJune 17, 2010 at 3:36 PM

    Thanks -hopefully people having heard it on here will make it more likely that they will snap up one of the 250 copies when it comes out though I think Harbinger would be happier if you took the link down just in case distributors complain that people can just download it

    ReplyDelete
  12. vdoandsoundJune 17, 2010 at 4:23 PM

    Hi Philip,

    Okay...no problem. link's been removed. I wasn't able to find a website for Harbinger Sound, or I'd have provided a hyperlink in the post. If they DO have one and you have the address for it, I'll be happy to revise the text on the post.

    Eric

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  13. Philip SandersonJune 20, 2010 at 3:33 AM

    Thanks Eric - Harbinger tell me the website is on its way - I'll let you know when it is up.
    Philip

    ReplyDelete
  14. Philip SandersonOctober 31, 2011 at 12:55 AM

    The Safe Substitute LP is out now on red vinyl from Harbinger records. Available from all good emporiums (Secondlayer, Fusetrom, Volcanic, Swill etc etc)

    ReplyDelete
  15. borgo sebastienJune 29, 2012 at 4:43 AM

    The sound of the red vinyl reissue is realy bad, what a shame for a so great tape. Next time on cd please or in a good quality vinyl.

    ReplyDelete