Insect Guide’s Top Ten Dark Pop Albums
We gave Insect Guide a slighly blinkered choicem and what did the go and do? Teach us that there us a kind of worthy ‘pop’ out there. We have to hold our hands up, we were all put off with that X crap, the hypem the vocal filters, the packaging, the lack of originality.
I am glad to report that Insect Guide do not suffer from any of these3 aliments listed above; Instead they make well crafted dark atmospheruc indie, they may even call it ‘pop’, but what we all can be sure of, are two truiths – see Insect Guide live and your seduced and we could not find anyone better for a Dark Pop Top Ten Albums.
Insect Guide’s Dark Pop Top Ten
Formed in Leeds in late 2005 by Su Sutton and Stan Howells, INSECT GUIDE have been sending ripples through the musical underground ever since thanks to their distinctive brand of dark, cinematic pop. The 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. ’6ft In Love was meet with critical acclaim with Uncut magazine naming the album as ‘Debut of the Month’ Drowned in Sound magazine called it “irresistible 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 by a limited EP featuring remixes of two tracks by Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3).
Last year 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’ . More details and links are below, but know you realise that they are the perfect band to write this feature you Ladies and Gentlemen; you came her for Insect Guide’s Dark Pop Top 10
BIG STAR – ‘SISTER LOVERS’
“Putting the bleakest, darkest depths of your being on tape can create an album of perfect pop gems…”
THE CURE – ‘FAITH’
“Serious boys in long coats waiting at suburban bus stops clutching indie record shop carrier bags, lost in a fog of existential angst.”
DRUGSTORE – ‘WHITE MAGIC FOR LOVERS’
“The darkness and the edginess of the lyrics and the vocal delivery are all the more effective because of the melodic dreamlike quality of the music”
FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE – ‘SELF TITLED’
“Perfectly formed vignettes of disillusionment and suburban malaise to a soundtrack worthy of the beach boys”
JAY-Z – THE BLACK ALBUM
“The cacophony of a dystopian city heard through layers of noise and channelled into ridiculously great beats and lyrics. Remixed amazingly into the ‘Grey Album’.”
JESUS & MARYCHAIN – ‘PSYCHOCANDY’
“13 tracks of amphetamine, adrenaline fuelled fuzz-pop frenzy – inspired and inspiring.”
LADY GAGA – ‘THE FAME’
“The 5 singles off this album are perfect slices of dark pop that are sexy, dangerous and grotesque in equal measure.”
NICK CAVE – ‘ABATTOIR BLUES/LYRE OF ORPHEUS’
Like a vocal sermon on base human instincts backed by a fantastically apocalyptic band, when I saw him live I truly believed there was a war coming.
NICK DRAKE – ‘PINK MOON’
‘Little-boy-lost blues, a cri de Coeur. Recorded quickly with no trimmings, it has a stark desolate, intimate beauty.’
PIXIES – ‘DOOLITTLE’
“”1.Debaser 2.Tame 3.Wave Of Mutilation…” has a pop album ever started so perfectly?”
Insect Guide’s 2nd album ‘Dark Days & Nights’ was released at the start of the summer on Squirrel Records, 2010. We will try at bestest to keep you all posted on everything Insect Guide but if we ever take our eye off the bal gotol any of these links, go to them anyway…
http://www.myspace.com/insectguide
http://www.squirrelrecords.co.uk