The Leeds Scenester
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Insect Guide Dark Days and Nights
Vastly growing in popularity, Insect Guide, a Leeds formed band, bring you their second album “Dark Days & Nights”. Often hailed as being beautifully ‘dark’ this latest album is no different. The mellow lingering vocals of Su Sutton stay with you long after the songs are over, reminiscent of the caramel smooth vocals from Sonic Boom.
The addition of drummer Chris Cooper to the previous twosome of Sutton and guitarist Stan Howells, creates a wave of vigour to the album, illustrated glowingly so in “Down From Here”, the first single to be released from the album. Beginning with a teasingly come hither bassline, the beat gets under your skin mixing with the evocative vocals to create an epic indie-pop tune. It’s one of those songs you instantly want to experience live.
The album starts with “Wasted”, which promptly sets the tone for the album. It’s almost an illustration for the band in general; moody distinctive tones and vocals interlocking with melodic post-punk power, an interplay of dark and bright. As in Track 3, “10”, soft verses framed on chords building tension released in dynamic choruses.
Track 4, “Dark Days and Night” is instantly ferocious with Howell’s wailing guitar and straight away becoming one of the highlights of the album. The song epitomises what the band are wanting to achieve with this album: an insight into their world as they experience it in the environment they experience it.
A track that stands out is Track 6, “Tape”, short but inarguably sweet. Its acoustic softness with Suttons beautifully haunting vocals creates one minute and ten seconds of pure mellow chilled enjoyment. As can actually be said of all the softer tracks of the album, including “Crushed” which features a more pounding drumming; and particularly “Hearts Don’t Break”, the ending to the album; in which the inclusion of the piano only exaggerates the poignancy of the song, leaving you wanting to hear more.
“Dark Days & Night” is a unique album from a unique band. It is not just another indie pop band experimenting with a darker sound for effect. It works. The collaboration of smooth vocals with the dramatic varying energy from Howells on guitar and the building of intensity from the drums is a combination of perfection, not forgetting of course the lyrics, which do nothing to taint this perfection, instead creating an atmospheric plane from which the music can bounce off. Insect Guide wanted to create an album that reflected their world; “which often included the dark bars and dirty dance floors of a city centre” (Sutton). This is that. And executed perfectly with finesse.
Insect Guide are currently touring and hitting Leeds on the 9th December, I urge you not to miss.
Sarah Moss
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