Arch M is from London. He crafts spluttering, beautiful, barely-there songs from urgent guitar melodies and skittish, overdriven bass lines. You can find the seven track E.P. The Mountain Tan Commercials, free to download, by clicking here. It only lasts nine minutes long, but the brevity somehow adds to it all. Not included on that record is the excellent ’21st Union’, which can be heard at www.myspace.com/archm.

The Young Equestrians, who make rather lengthier songs, are from New York. They use, according to their myspace page, “ keyboards, electronics, accordion, guitar, cello, upright bass, electric bass, drums, glockenspiel”, and last but not least, “other things”, in their delightfully meandering improvisations. They also feature the excellently named Mikey ‘Freedom’ Hart. Particularly worth a listen are the tracks ‘The Flood Downtown’ and ‘The World Series’, both of which conjure up an atmospheric sense of nostalgia.

You can buy their splendidly produced album Beware of The Hurry Sickness, at their lovely website.

– Hamish.