Lord Of The Flies

The Flies dodge the industry, take their music directly to the people

After eight years on bass with Spiritualized and three years as lead singer with Lupine Howl, Sean Cook returns as frontman of The Flies. Their self-titled, download only mini album, which was released on June 4th via No Carbon Records, is a dark, haunting but timelessly beautiful collection of songs. Band members Sean Cook, Bob Locke and Tim Norfolk, shared writing duties on the hiply short record, which was produced by the appropriately named Bristol based production team The Insects. The Flies’ musical heritage is nothing short of impressive, as the three band members have worked with such luminaries as Massive Attack, Tricky, Goldfrapp , The Jesus & Mary Chain, Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) and various members of Portishead - to name a few. The Insects have also composed several film soundtracks including recent cult horror flick Creep.

Beginning loosely as a studio project in 2005 when The Insects invited Sean to sing on a track, the collaboration grew, taking on its own spirit and sonic quality, bound together by Cook’s unique and haunting vocals. Much of the music has the aural feel of a David Lynch movie with influences ranging from Roy Orbison & The Doors to Kraftwerk.

Shunning the normal routes to releasing music, The Flies put a massive emphasis on the Internet being the main outlet for the band. This approach lead to a pioneering deal with Universal Digital. Strong online support for the band came over a series of three digital-only releases (We Began / Walking On The Sand / The Temptress).

After establishing themselves as a cult band online, The Flies played their first gig supporting Massive Attack at Westonbirt Aboretum in July 2006. They have now moved into a full recording deal with new Universal label NoCarbon Records and are currently in the studio finishing the debut album due for release in the Autumn.