... Chapel Hill, North Carolina, home to a million indie rock bands and not a great deal less record labels. Everyone in a band knows everyone else in a band. Line-ups change, band names change, styles change, but not much music happens without at least someone knowing. And yet THE KINGSBURY MANX meant absolutely nothing to anyone there.

After sending their first recordings to about ten labels in the US, they were picked up by Thrill Jockey employee Howard Greynolds for his newly formed Overcoat Recordings, who only succeeded in getting an actual band name out of them when the record went in to be manufactured. Early reactions to the album from Chapel Hill publications suggested that the record wasn't actually a debut album at all, but instead the work of an anonymous established act masquerading as recent college graduates. The lack of any biographical information, either on the sleeve (which fails to credit anyone except the album's engineer and the cover painting's artist) or on any media handout, added to the mystery.

That anyone persevered enough for the world to find out more about THE KINGSBURY MANX is down to one thing and one thing only. As Magnet magazine wrote upon its release in February, the album is "one of the most auspicious debuts in recent memory". (They wrote elsewhere that it's "too small to be simply gorgeous, it's more like a snapshot of an angel", but we'll forgive their enthusiasm given our own.) It was reactions like these that led to their NYC debut at Town Hall opening for Elliott Smith. All those that heard the record returned to it over and over again, drawn deeper and deeper into its utterly charming embrace.

And so details about the band emerged, slowly. There are four of them: Kenneth Stephenson (guitar, vocals), Bill Taylor (guitar, vocals), Scott Myers (bass, keyboards, cover painting), and Ryan Richardson (drums, vocals). They've known each other for some years, having studied at the same school. After separating for college, they returned to North Carolina and started recording together. That, at least, is as much as they've let slip so far.

It's not that they want to be mysterious, it's just that such minor details sound so unimportant next to their expansive musical canvas. THE KINGSBURY MANX takes in such a stunning blend of pastoral influences - dare we say Simon & Garfunkel, Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, The Association, The Velvet Underground, The Byrds, just for starters - and yet it manages to sound utterly timeless, utterly of its time, and utterly essential to all those who value music above all else. From Pageant Square's rumbling bass and cyclical melody, to the autumnal sounds of the unusually titled Piss Diary, to the epic acoustic sweep of Blue Eurasians, to the gently touching New Old Friend Blues and finally the 'Bookends' style closer, Silver Trees, it's a debut album to treasure. And whilst not especially indicative of the album, the acapella Hawaii in Ten Seconds alone says more about the courage of THE KINGSBURY MANX's convictions than any list of influences or rambling press bio.

It may have taken some time for THE KINGSBURY MANX reach these shores, but it will take a considerably longer time to leave…