Guitar bands from Manchester have an unavoidable legacy, whether they intend to or not. Throw together some chiming harmonies, a big singalong chorus and a lead singer who can stretch those vowels out, and someone is bound to conjure up a family tree stretching back to Belle Vue. Arkayla have that same recipe, though they appear more as four friends figuring things out through their early experiences as a band than a fully formed entity ready to storm the indie rock scene.

The new EP comprises just four tracks, a scant 13 minutes of music, but there is a clear divide running through it. Opener “Run Kid” and closer “Doba” are immediate affairs, built for a tight festival set, but in between them “Vivian” and “My Number” offer a different approach. It is a matter of pacing, an EP not designed simply to fill up a setlist with anthems.

Can Arkayla move beyond the big chorus?

“Run Kid” is all opening statements, with Dylan Murphy’s pounding drums, chugging guitars and wide production creating a determined sense of forward motion. The rhythm section knows when to make room for Cal Blakebrough’s vocal, while the build towards the final chorus never loses its impact. As an introductory track, it works, and for all its force the arrangement never feels overcrowded. Even so, if this were the standard blueprint for every song, the EP would struggle to gain much ground beyond a competent, if fairly familiar, indie setlist.

This is where “Vivian” comes in, one of the tracks that sets Back To Belle Vue apart from your standard Mancunian guitar band. It concerns Murphy’s great-grandfather Matt Kelly, who served as head zookeeper at Belle Vue. In 1946, Kelly was bitten by a snake the day before his daughter Vivian was born. He kept the incident from his heavily pregnant wife, believing the shock could harm her or the unborn child.

It is not the easiest premise to work with, but Arkayla manage to imbue the track with a lighthearted feel, particularly through Blakebrough’s vocal delivery. The track sees the band loosen up, the bass and less distorted guitar coming to the fore, and the overall sense of restraint allowing for a more breezy approach. The thematic juxtaposition with the heavier “Run Kid” helps, but this is also a case of the EP’s title paying off. Back To Belle Vue is far from just a bit of Mancunian nostalgia. The connection is distinctly personal, right down to the record’s artwork, which incorporates historic Belle Vue photographs taken by Kelly himself.

Where does the EP really find its identity?

“My Number” continues this shift, this subtle evolution of the band’s sound. The rhythm section once again takes the lead, providing a driving pulse that lets Blakebrough’s vocal float above it. Again, it is not revolutionary; the British indie influences remain easy enough to pick out, but that by no means is a bad thing. By allowing the band to breathe and not always lean into the huge chorus, “My Number” has a sense of space and atmosphere that “Run Kid” lacks, and that is a mark of a band that knows how to write more than just one type of song.

It is this shift that makes “My Number” such a strong track on an already varied EP.

“Doba”, meanwhile, finds Arkayla back in familiar territory. It is named after Polish adventurer Aleksander Doba, who crossed the Atlantic alone by kayak, but musically it has the feel of a more traditional indie anthem. The band lean into the rhythmic guitar strumming and find another groove to power the chorus, the kind of feel that makes the track sound like it should be played at full volume in a car on a road trip.

It is not a huge leap from what Arkayla already do well, but it fits after the relative quiet of “My Number”. By placing it fourth, the EP avoids feeling like a list of singles and instead has a sense of forward motion. For a song named after a man who crossed the Atlantic alone in a kayak, that seems rather fitting.

As an introduction to what Arkayla can do, Back To Belle Vue is difficult to fault. It has the strengths expected of a modern indie rock band, but the clever use of the Belle Vue setting and the inclusion of personal family stories lend it a distinct feel.

Does Back To Belle Vue move Arkayla forward?

Yes, largely because it refuses to adhere strictly to one specific style. Arkayla have proven that they have an affinity for writing a song, but Back To Belle Vue has more variety within its four tracks than plenty of bands accomplish in a substantially longer release. From the opening burst of “Run Kid” into the more introspective “Vivian”, the found space in “My Number” and the pick-up of pace and energy for “Doba”, it is a short but confident step forward from a young band.

There is no rigid concept binding every song together, but Belle Vue gives the EP a centre of gravity. Between the family history behind “Vivian”, the use of archival photos for the artwork and this band’s predilection for unique personal tragedies, it seems fitting rather than an attempted theft of Manchester’s cultural life.

More importantly, Back To Belle Vue has character. Arkayla already have the choruses capable of attracting an audience, but these four tracks suggest the more interesting question is what they can do when they choose not to rely on them.