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On Our iPod

Golden Grrrls - New Pop 7”

Chris Devotion & The Expectations - Amalgamation & Capital (album)

Trailer Trash Tracys - Ester (album)

Throwing Up - Mother Knows Best 7”

Howling Wolf - Complete Chess Masters 1951-60

The Ketamines - A Rotten Bond/1 Yr (from Oddbox Singles Club Pt 2)

Cardinal - Hymns (album)

Proper Ornaments - Taking the Gamble Out of Buying 12”

Darren Hayman - January Songs (album)

Various: Marshall Teller EP 12”

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Album Review

Insect Guide
Dark Days & Nights Squirrel Records

Article written by Ged M - May 12, 2010

Insect Guide: Dark Days & Nights

Curse the BBC for its programming decisions! Insect Guide are the sort of band you'd once have loved to see on Top of the Pops: dark-hued and dangerous but laden with catchy pop hooks. And, as a result, vocalist Su Sutton would be gracing every impressionable teenager's walls (as well as haunting their dreams). There's no similar outlet now in these sterile Steve/ Fearne/ Edith days but I'd advise you to seek this album out somehow and self-medicate with a shot of pop with a deceptively fierce kick.

Listen to the wired 'Wasted' (a soon-to-be single) or the densely layered wall-of-sound guitar pop of the title track for the purest pop rush but note how much is going on beneath, from the densely layered guitars of Stan Howells to the kinetic drumming of former Pale Saint Chris Cooper. Both stand out on the effects-laden 'Insider' with its percussive menace, droning organ and fuzzing guitars. There's a strain of smart experimentalism running through the album, from the moody tones on '10' to the dark, Lynchian 'Hearts Don't Break' that ends the album in a shadowy swoon, with a lingering air of menace: "I see the lights on the river/ I see the bodies on the shore". Drawing on elements of Spacemen 3 and the Velvet Underground, and sounding like they're sonic cousins of the fabulous Tamborines, Insect Guide's second album peels back its sweet face to reveal a satisfyingly dark dronepop soul.

Links:
http://theinsectguide.com/
http://www.squirrelrecords.co.uk/the-insect-guide/
http://www.myspace.com/insectguide