The four tracks on this superb EP begin with ‘Crow’, which opens with a charmer of a chatted intro: “I’m in Croatia… I’m playing croquet… With a crowbar!” before leaping into a fierce combination of lyrics and music that display a pretty tight grip on the flow and attack that makes a good chunk of meaty hip-hop.

Musically, there’s quite some diversity on display here. ‘Crow’ sounds like a combination of John Carpenter’s Attack On Precinct 13 score and The Human League’s ‘The Black Hit Of Space'; ‘Nursery Rhymes’ is a jaunty groove that recalls Massive Attack’s ‘Unfinished Sympathy'; ‘Fly Like’ chucks guitar squeal and bouncing soul music into the max à la Public Enemy; ‘F’d’ is a very slightly 8-bit, very slightly bitcrushed take on melody. As a whole, there’s a pretty healthy selection of influences and reference points going on.

Lyrically, as seems to be the case with a lot of modern hip-hop, ‘Nursery Rhymes Vol II’ seems to flick between braggadocio wordplay and opaque machine-gun attacks of phraseology. Whilst any deep and/or meaningful messages here may be hidden beneath this bluster of vocal gymnastics, the delivery is very impressive. There’s a touch of Dizzee Rascal or Wiley’s deft speed in stringing words together into rhythmic texture, and that peculiarly English-sounding approach to the delivery that is both grounding and uplifting.

Oxford regularly gets written up as a rich resource for all things musical, yet such exposure often concentrates on what can broadly be defined as ‘indie’ or, one way or another, tuneful-singing-along-with-guitars. That’s no bad thing, but there’s a whole lot more bubbling beneath the surface – the kind of positive, skilful hip-hop spearheaded by BG Records, as well as healthy heavy metal, folk and electronica scenes. ‘Nursery Rhymes Vol II’ is a fine example of the kind of record that should be bumped into the headlines when Oxford’s music scene is being highlighted.