Fireworks Night - When We Fell Through the Ice

by Helen Tipping

published: 21 / 6 / 2007

Fireworks Night - When We Fell Through the Ice

Label: Kartel Records/Organ Grinder Records
Format: 7"

Stunning, harmonic folk rock on waltzing new single from London collective Fireworks Night, whose second album 'As Fools We Are' came out in May

Review

Fireworks Night are a collective of musicians brought together by James Lesslie. The musicians play a huge variety of instruments, some traditional, some modern and some just strange. The single 'When We Fell Through The Ice' was taken from Fireworks Night's second album 'As Fools We Are'which came out in May. It was originally released before the album last year and was re-released on 7 June. It is the second track on the album, with instruments used sparsely to give a waltzing theme to the song and vocals featuring Lesslie and Briony Greenhill, their voices complementing each other as they sing the same lyrics in harmony. A love song of lovers not meant to be together, it's beautiful in its simplicity. This single is being released on two limited edition 7" singles featuring exclusive bonus tracks. The B side, is called 'Echo's Swing' and also has a waltz sound to it, but this time it's a fairground waltz with layers of instruments rather than the sparse affair of the A side. I think I like it better, but I'm quite fond of layers of built up sound, especially when like this it deteriorates into madness. This track is not available on the album, but apparently it's becoming a live favourite for the band's fans and I can see why that would be. There is also a remix of 'When We Fell Through The Ice' by Psapp, which sounds like it's being played by an accordian player in a French cafe, and is more instrumental than the original track. With a funky back beat, it's very slinky. The fourth song on the single(s) is 'A Picture Worth Framing', from the band's first album 'It's a Wide, Wide Sea'. A melancholic acoustic folky number, it's quite different from the other 3 tracks, but still beautiful in its own way. It's great to listen to a band who put as much emphasis on putting together the music as the lyrics in order to create an atmosphere and to transport the listener into the song.