Another review of the Storm Bugs A Safe Substitute re-release on Klanggalerie. This one was written in December but I have only just found it. It is especially good in its use of adverbs and adjectives to describe the music.
Storm Bugs - A Safe Substitute [KlangGalerie - 2020]
Originally released in 1980 A Safe Substitute was the debut release from London based experimental duo Storm Bugs. It offered up a selection of darkly woozy & grimly uneasy sound-scaping that moved between stark industrial texturing, lo-fi glitching electronica, surreal ambience, and bleak sonic collaring. Here from the guys over at KlangGalerie is a most needed CD reissue of this release- bringing together the albums original four tracks, with three bonus tracks.
It’s marvellous to see Klang Galerie reissue this great example of early 80’s industrial unease & clattering grim ambience- and let's hope there are some more Storm Bugs reissue planned for the near future, as they certainly had their own distinctive sound.
The release is presented in a glossy four-panel digipak- on it's outside, and inside artwork, we get blurred & reflective pictures of a UK clothes shop from the 1980- which fits well with some of the themes of the release. And we get minimal text info on the back cover. I’m not sure what the pressing is on this, but I’m sure it can’t be huge- as I know more often than not KlangGalerie titles do go out of print.
The album opens up with the longest track here “Mesh Of Wire/ Car Situations/ Mesh On Wire (Reprise)”- this comes in at just over the sixteen & a half minute mark, and gives you really of a primer of what to expect on the rest of the album- as we find drifting & blurring blend lo-fi chopping beats, wavering & unease synth textures, floating female & male voices- either snipped & dragged, or left eerier & stark, rattling or clicking metallic tones, or wonky pitch shifts- all making for an eventful & unease sonic soup. By track three we come to the six and a half minutes of “Solely From”- here we find a great example of murky early techno-meets- industrial sound making with its blunt blend of piping synth lines, snaking loose beats, and metal-on-metal rhythmic rattle. The original release finished with the wonderful ominous-titled “Blackheath Episode”- which is nearing five minutes of chugging & biting electronics, woozy pitch swift harmonics, and more seared/ bouncing sampled junk elements.
On the bonus side, we get three tracks, and these are from the same period as the other tracks. We have the scarping-meets-brooding march of “He Rose Up Again”, the creepy scuttle & tribal snap of “333”, and the more quirky & roughshod junkshop sinister dada of “Table Matters Soundtrack”. These three tracks sit well alongside the original album tracks, and push the CD length up to spot on the forty-seven minute mark.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Roger Batty
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