Kingsbury Manx – Aztec Discipline / Afternoon Owls

The story goes that the first time somebody told the members of this young Chapel Hill, North Carolina, band that they sounded like Pink Floyd, they were puzzled. “What”, they asked, “like The Wall?” Apparently their knowledge of Pink Floyd didn’t go back any further than 1979.

Well, God bless cloistered rock kids who manage to steer clear of influences, yet conjure up similar spells. Kingsbury Manx might not be inventing any new wheels with Aztec Discipline and Afternoon Owls (separately issued as a five-track EP and a short ten-song album), but the group’s catalog is one of the most attractive in the contemporary indie-rock universe.

The Manx recalls the Floyd from a decade or so before The Wall, the period between original guiding light Syd Barrett’s departure and 1973’s landmark Dark Side Of The Moon. The main reference point is Floyd’s 1971 album Meddle, with an understated cinematic feel. About the only hint of the group’s southern roots is the pedal steel twang that pops up here and there. Except for that, these two records sound like they could have emerged from Abbey Road rather than Jerry Kee’s studio in Mebane, North Carolina.

Dreamy, hooky and gorgeous, this will put you in a trance and keep you there.