I’ve discovered, while out driving, that The Holy Innocents are perfect company on autumn evenings.

‘Epistle To Home’, a song that could have slotted neatly onto the Fleet Foxes record, and from there into the hearts of millions worldwide, is proving something of an on-repeat obsession at the moment. Trust me: it’s a lighthouse of a tune. Something to gather around as the dark nights take hold. Seriously: seek out its beam. You’ll thank me.
In fact, if you have a hankering for some music to hang out with as the year ebbs away then you don’t need to look too far. There’s really never been a better time to shop local.
The Lowly Knights had quite a sick note to explain their prolonged absence from the Northern music fray. Given how they’d shed half their number over the course of the winter, it’s little wonder the band took some time to consider their options. Since re-emerging in the spring, however, they have been making up for lost time. And their second release in less than six months – The Even Keel EP – proves that while the dizzy momentum of their early days may have dissipated, the band are maturing into an act of real substance and weight. With the waistcoats and mandolins, the Mumford and Sons comparisons are inevitable, but the title-track and ‘This Other Boy’ suggests they’ll shake them off before long.
We were struck during our recent chinwag with Skibunny’s Mark Gordon by the puppyish enthusiasm and box-fresh attitude of the man. No mean feat given that, along with his partner in crime, Tanya Mellotte, he has been working at the indie coalface for almost 20 years. Hugs, the band’s debut album, wears this experience lightly. Sonically, its production sheen and feel for dynamics is comfortably up-to-date, but the sentiments, the melancholic tug of much of the songs, have a lived-in heft that only comes with serious living.
Chris, Rich and the rest of the Escape Act crew don’t like to make things easy for themselves. Every record they release feels like a wild autodidact project, during the making of which (it emerges) the band have had to teach themselves crafts and skills they’d never previously encountered.
Balance, their new album finds singer/songwriter Chris getting to grips for the first time with orchestral arrangements – to interesting and beguiling ends. Escape Act are the most restless of bands – never content to coast, always looking for an interesting slip road down which to digress. And while you’d worry that their ditching of the stylistic Sat Nav could see them hemmed in along the odd blind-alley, thus far they’ve never wound up anywhere less than scenic. We look forward to discovering where they end up next probably as much as they do.
Indigo Fury have spent almost a decade fighting the good fight on behalf of arms aloft anthemic indie. Fashion may have moved on in the time since, but the boys make no apologies for continuing to take their cues from the baggydelic big boys. Judging by their single, ‘Sick Of Emo’, neither do they have any plans to soften their stance. An album is expected before the year’s end and seeing as The Verve and Oasis aren’t bothering anymore, there’s quite a gap for these boys to fill.
‘Judicial Duel’ is the first taster of the second album from The Jane Bradfords, and it suggests that during the time Deci and co have been bunkered away, they’ve moved up a division or two. Before Christmas they’ll be showing off their fancy new moves.
And then there’s Heliopause. The band have been regular visitors to the column over the years, and each time they’ve popped their head around the door, the temptation has been to ruffle their hair and comment on how much they’ve grown. There are lots of things to say about their debut album Walk Into The Sea (and given how striking the artwork and design is, it would really be worth your while picking up a physical copy) but one thing is clear: this is the work of grown-ups. Heliopause have always favoured subtly over bombast, to an extent that their many qualities have sometimes been obscured. With Walk Into The Sea, there seems to have been both an emotional and a musical maturing, meaning that now their virtues are impossible to miss.
So don’t. Walk with them. It’ll be cold in there, but at least the company is good.