Insect Guide - 6FT in Love
2 Comments Published by Trev Lostmusic on Friday, November 30, 2007 at 09:50.
This is one for the shoegazers and noisenik lovers. Insect Guide are a new band from Leeds. This is their debut LP and it is released on new label Dead Penny Records. This is one of those LPs that works best after more than a few listens and it recalls bands like Spacemen 3 on songs like 'Touch Me' which has a big bass throbbing through it's psychedelic heart. Elsewhere we have echoes of Curve, especially in Su Suttons lush vocal deliveries. The final influence I hear coming through is German band Neu! and their deep mechanical krautrock rhythm's. This Germanic influence comes to the fore on one of the stand out songs - 'The Insect'. Lovely stuff.There's certainly enough evidence on this LP to suggest that Insect Guide have a very promising future ahead of them. The band manage to showcase their influences without ever sounding like they're mere copyists. There is a lovely balance of light and shade to this LP with the shards of guitar noise being kept for the right moments. This is an impressive debut release that hints that the band could go on to be one of the fore runners of the resurgent shoegaze scene.
The CD is available to buy for £11.99 (which gets you the LP and DVD of videos for every song) or downloadable from Northern Star Records for £5.99. I plumped for the CD and DVD combo.
Here's the video for 'Touch Me'.
I'd heartily recommend The Insect Guide record. I came across them via Myspace and the album is one of my favourites of the year. Very reminiscent of the Shoe Gazey period, although Su told me in an email that her and Stan were surprised that they were being labelled a Shoegazey band.
Some tracks are very Spacemen 3 which is no bad thing.
Funny that they would not feel the shoegazeness...that tambourine... the layers of guitars and solid percussion. This music is taking me to 1992 in a good way. I included the track "David Hero" on a recent popcast (the show is "Like Sugar" on iTunes and Odeo).