This is a beautiful album. Built up from simple acoustic songs, Fireworks Night have ended up with an album that could very well fit in with the catalogue of dark country artists such as Will Oldham and the later works of Johnny Cash. The stripped down arrangments, instrumental fills just where they should be and perfect harmonies, captures that melancholic feel of alt country.
The press release says that their sound is a sweet, messy sound. It is sweet, but in no way is it messy at all. In fact it is a wonderful, very conherent album that shows ambitions far beyond this small release.

Hurrah Oxford's own pop genius Ste Fleming is back, and his song's subject is perfect for this current time in world politics. His songwriting has never been afraid of dealing with leading political figures (my favourite HRE song was always Benazir Bhutto), so now he addresses the danger the world is in, in his own unique way.
The chorus goes 'As George Bush addresses the world and Kofi Annan holds his head in his hands, his powerless hands'. There is no better way to express the fear that we all feel inside us every time George W Bush steps up to give a speech, and with a swirling, anthemic pop song, Le Emu Tavern has captured the fear in a 2min 30secs pop song.

For those of you who remember far back enough, Loopy used to be based in Oxford. Now based in Winchester, it's great to see that they are still performing their slices of punky pop songs. Theirs is the world where everything can be summed up in 3 minute, and it is permanently summer and sunny. With a bluesy keyboard lead, they sound quite a bit like Squeeze, but when the sun is shining, that sort of music is just what you need.

Student bands eh? They're usually rubbish aren't they, with bad funk attempts or just trying to be Oasis. Well the Mules are different. This demo has quite a garagey feel, and because it sounds rough, it adds to the whole effect (unlike all the recent 'garage' bands that are so polished they have damaged the name). The bouncy rhythm of the bass and drums and the use of the fiddle creates a gypsy sound, which adds a novel twist to the normal garage rock.
The rough sound of the demo also captures the energy and and intensity of the band, before they end up being reined in by some marketing men.

The soundtrack to summers in Oxford has always been nervous_testpilot's mixes at Truck Festival, and the look of stunned surprise by random passers by who have not yet heard his mixes of samples heavy trance. It wasn't surprising to find that nervous_testpilot has now created music to soundtrack computer games. It is the perfect setting to his music. As his electronic sounds soars, you can just imaging computer rendered characters racing down darkened corridors to save the world or something. This EP, of music that is set to feature on the computer game, also markst the next stage in nervous_testpilot's musical development. Gone are the silly samples from film and popular culture, taking with them the light hearted/jokey feel of the music. Left behind is the darker manic trance.
In fact, by making this sample-less music, these new tracks could bring nervous_testpilot to the audience he deserves. Left in the conventional small dark venues, his novelty tracks were alwasy the centre of attention. But left to infiltrate the listener's world subconciously, this music could attract the attention of those who don't spend every weekend listening to live music in darkened rooms.