The Storm Bugs, 2018 (L-R: Philip Sanderson, Steven Ball). Photo courtesy of the artists.


Between 1978 and 1981, Storm Bugs released two 7-inch records and a number of tapes. In 2002, the band were resuscitated with new recordings being issued including The Bugs Are Back EP and Certified Original & Vintage Fakes. Separately, Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball have recorded new music available on the Snatch Tapes, and other, bandcamp pages. In 2018, the band became known as The Storm Bugs.

The Medway locale where the pair first met clearly still resonates – this is waterlogged, groggy music, neck-deep in aquatics, its foot flailing for the riverbed. The unique place that they arrive at – both bucolic and urban, serious and playful, utterly modern (the lyrics could only have been written in the last two years) and strangely timeless – [holds] your listening [experience] querulously [...] between immersion and [...] deep suspicion about whether SB are telling you the truth about their means of production. Songs seem so imbued with an analogue dub feel you find yourself trapped between ravishment and paranoia.

– Neil Kulkarni, Wire, Issue 400/June 2017