Insect Guide

Formed in Leeds in late 2005, Insect Guide – Su Sutton and Stan Howells – have been sending ripples through the musical underground ever since thanks to their distinctive brand of DARK, CINEMATIC POP. After two years of intensive activity Insect Guide's debut album, 6ft in Love, appeared on Leeds' Dead Penny Records in October 2007. The release included a DVD of self-produced videos. Sometimes bizarre and disturbing, sometimes gentle and reflective, the videos complemented the music perfectly; fans of the band's immersive, audio-visual live shows would have expected no less. An UNCUT magazine 'DEBUT OF THE MONTH', Subba-Cultcha described it as 'a beautiful and idiosyncratic pop album'; Drowned in Sound called it 'AN IRRESISTABLE POP MASTERPIECE... AS DARK AS THE MOST POTENT VELVET UNDERGROUND'. Elsewhere, the album drew favourable comparisons to The Jesus and Mary Chain, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. 6ft in Love was followed in January 2008 by a limited EP featuring remixes of two tracks by SONIC BOOM (MGMT/Spacemen 3/Spectrum). The CD quickly sold out. The first half of 2008 saw the Insects gigging heavily in support of both releases, supporting the likes of Ulrich Schnauss, Pains of Being Pure At Heart and Maps. A mini-tour of the USA in March was followed by appearances in Norway and Poland. Meanwhile, the band's profile in the UK was raised by their cover of Dinosaur Jr.'s 'FREAKSCENE' on RADIO 1's STEVE LAMACQ show and in the pages of the NME ('an amazing cover of Dinosaur Jr.'s finest moment'). In late 2008 – with the SONIC BOOM remix of 'Frozen' finding a whole new audience on Northern Star Records' groundbreaking Psychedelica Three compilation – Insect Guide began gigging and recording with drummer Chris Cooper, of 4AD legends THE PALE SAINTS. The result is a new batch of songs that show Insect Guide, far from struggling to follow their debut, are just hitting their stride: still darkly atmospheric, still multi-layered, still beautifully crafted – but louder, more direct, and more unashamedly 'pop'. With a MARC RILEY session under their belts and STEVE LAMACQ calling their version of Paparazzi "The Gaga cover that EVERYONE has been asking about", Insect Guide released their 2nd album "DARK DAYS & NIGHTS" in October 2010. - Greg Owens 2010 Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.