There's no real theme to this small selection of singles today, except that it's been one of those utterly wasteful, pointless days which grind you to a halt and offer nothing but a stinging slap in return for your best efforts to face them down. It's times like these when the contents of my iPod take on an inordinate, perhaps unhealthy importance as I shuffle through the tracks looking for a musical crutch to get me around the next unexpected bend in the road. So, this pair of recent releases have popped to the top of my listening list at just the right moment to rescue an otherwise written-off day - and long may this continue to happen.

Amber Wilson - Raise The Alarm/An Affirmation

I've remarked elsewhere about the number of 'guy and guitar' acts around just now, and it's probably only fair to say that equally there are a lot of female singer-songwriters doing the rounds too. There is something simple and complementary about a female vocal and an acoustic guitar which is hard to explain, and given the amount of this stuff which finds its way to my collection, I'm not about to knock it. However, it's even better when something comes along which surprises and defies expectations like Amber Wilson's recently released single.

"Raise The Alarm" begins with just a nagging guitar melody and the tense echo of Amber's voice. She is joined by enough mournful cello to keep the brooding mood in place, but just when you're resigned to the song ending much as it began things build to a perfect storm of a guitar-fuelled ending which also propels Amber to new vocal heights. None of this surprise shift of register of course, drowns the remarkable, gymnastic voice which manages to survive this curious mutation from acoustic ballad to out-and-out rock classic completely intact. The arrangement of "An Affirmation" is perhaps a little simpler and more straightforward, but it still allows plenty of space for Amber's gorgeous vocal to play, hitting clear-as-a-bell highs and whispered pensive lows. Again, the accompaniment is simple, uncluttered and manages to deftly enhance the thought-provokingly assuring lyrics rather than going for overblown and cloying, which is apparently all too easy it seems these days.

Beautifully written, sensitively delivered and lyrical pop music sung by someone with a near indecent amount of talent. There's not a lot to argue with here and it's available for a ridiculously tiny sum. I've heard only good things about Amber Wilson for some time now, and it's great to have finally caught up with this release.

Amber Wilson - Raise The Alarm

"Raise The Alarm" is available from iTunes, Amazon and virtually every other online store you can possibly think of.

The Moth & The Mirror - Germany

As soon as the genre-busting, convention-disrespecting patrons of Olive Grove Records announced they'd be working with this band, it was bound to prove interesting. Perhaps most notable initially for a lineage which claims links with Admiral Fallow, Reindeer Section and Frightened Rabbit among others, on the evidence of the recent slow-burning, epic taster "Lights In The Sky" the last thing you'd likely expect from The Moth & The Mirror is an out-and-out floor filling disco hit. However, buried in this heady, addictive mix that's exactly what "Germany" appears to be at it's core. Wonderfully big, clattering beats introduce things, with choppy slices of eighties-sytle Postcard-era guitar slashing through. Meanwhile Stacey Sievwright's sometimes ethereal, sometimes insistent vocals shift mood with every twist and turn of the track. There are so many facets to this song that it's almost embarassing to list its high points - a moody, shoegazey middle section tumbles into an almost choral a cappella interlude, before finally everything shifts up a gear. I defy anyone not to end up dancing around stupidly while Stacey raps out the refrain of "shake me up and shake you out" over a proper old-fashioned soul stomp of a beat, and accompanied by perhaps the best soaring, heart-swelling guitar solo I've heard all year.

I find it difficult to convey just how utterly engaging this song is, and how once you've heard it you'll be convinced you can't remember a time when you didn't know it. For your single pound you also get a remix by Strike The Colours which makes no bones about the track's dance credentials, morphing the whole thing into a fantastically bleepy, pulsing anthem. This is what pop music should always be like, pure and simple.

The Moth & The Mirror - Germany

"Germany" is available digitally via iTunes or Bandcamp. Also available at Bandcamp is a strictly limited CD release, packaged with Olive Grove Records usual flamboyance. The Moth & The Mirror's debut album "Honestly, This World" will be released on 10th October.