Here’s Gunning For Tamar’s latest, a one-track single that’s available as a free download and also to purchase in fancy-shmancy, super-futuristic USB stick form – along with a rather nifty A2 screenprint – from Alcopop Records.

Like many other Oxford bands in an almost endless historical timeline, Gunning For Tamar offer variant takes on post-rock, so there are some rather familiar tropes at play with ‘Dark Sky Tourism’. Disjointed, swerving fuzz guitar melodies; clean guitar arpeggio melodies; unexpected-but-not-entirely-surprising quiet/loud contrasts; vocals that alternate between angry yelp and swooping wail. There’s undeniable skill going on here, though – the track is rather more than a simple assembly of things that Gunning For Tamar have enjoyed in the work of others. It’s a tiny epic of a song, a construct of sections and riffs that’s self-referential and clever, yet without losing sight of the value of a good tune, and that’s what is at the core of ‘Dark Sky Tourism’. Exploded that tune may have been, into shards of arrangement and lovably awkward corners, but it’s artfully composed to allow the listener to build it into an infectious piece in whatever way they see fit.

With their spectacular set at the recent Truck festival, Gunning For Tamar display that they’re now punching above mere ‘local band’ weight – and this track confirms this not only in its quality but in its production values. It’s bright, bold and fierce. As with contemporary on-the-way-to-big-things band Spring Offensive, Gunning For Tamar remain plugged into Oxford music in a way that’s impressive and pleasing. One has the feeling that if they aren’t already, they’ll soon be influencing and mentoring a tranche of new Oxford bands that follow in their wake, whilst remaining a visible and active part of the city’s music scene.