‘Under a leaf, our shadows fight, Come close to me, I’ll bend your mind, Blades of grass, hide my scythe, I eat the night’ (Mantis)

Now this is an intriguing treat, and one that marries the exquisite and the primitive in assured style.  New York’s Exo, who feature members of Dame, Exit Order, and Nandas, are here with their debut album and it is something of rare, spectral beauty.  The album poetically evokes the brief yet remarkable lives of insects, from the Ladybug to the Fig Wasp, to speak to the fragility of our own time on earth.

The first side comprises six tracks, each entrancingly infusing driving melodic punk with this otherworldly aura of brittle wonder.  Meanwhile, side two comprises an expansive, largely instrumental track, Mermaid Legend, that conjures an evocatively spellbinding soundscape.

The album is propelled by a limber rhythm section that ensures that the album pulses with propulsive energy.  Meanwhile, swells of warm synth, cascades of tinkling keys, and taut guitar joust with one another, at times conjuring moments of sparse melodicism and, at others, eruptions of surging velocity.

The key though, perhaps, lies in the deft interplay of the vocals – melodically infectious punk vocals, ethereal whispers, and layered harmonies are all interlaced to create a truly beguiling atmosphere.  One that is draped in a sense of delicacy and vulnerability, as if we ourselves are emerging from a cocoon for the first time.