By day, humble Geoff Smith pulls pints in an Essex pub; numbed out and daydreaming through an existence where we're all in thrall to the electronic bleeps and ring tones of mobile phones and the satellite, cable and wireless that supposedly binds us all together in an increasingly impersonal world.
When the last customer's served and the slops are all drained, though, he takes on the clandestine persona we now know as LONER: the enigmatic watcher who observes the madness around himself and by night records mysterious, atmospheric music reflecting this dislocated state of mind.
"Road Songs" is a delectable, tantalising introduction to Loner's world, showcasing four lonely, but inherently human slices of afterhours life reflected through Geoff's melancholy, but strangely comforting mindset. It kicks off with the sparsely modern semi-ballad "Another Line...In A Crazy World", which reflects the electronic misinformation we're all forced to sift through on a daily basis, aided and abetted by trip-hop(py) drums, lonely piano straight out of a Mark Hollis project and some wonderfully restrained, Warp -ish electronica. "I want to show you something, something not quite here...comin' through the phone lines, hanging in the air," broods Geoff by way of an introduction, every inch the ghost in the machine.
Marvellous. And it doesn't stop there either. "Road Song" comes next, with deep, echoed acoustic guitar again accompanied by slow, funked-out beats and trmmings of electronica. It's tremulous stuff, with a distant horn motif (Calexico take Colchester, anyone?) discreetly swelling the chorus line of "Go outside, take a walk into my town" and Geoff leading us into his nocturnal world of desolate romance.
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Third tune "Renay's Song" features trembling, haunting piano, which is the very essence of 'filmic'. It's as haunting and still as the finest Durutti Column and acts as a lovely introduction for the self-explanatory closer "French Movie" where sultry, Jane Birkin-esque vocals smoulder and caress their way around the most delicious mellifluous melody that's liable to drift away into the ether at any second.
"Road Songs" is music that has fallen through the cracks in the increasingly desperate, adrenalised world we live in today. Geoff Smith may be invisible during the day, but as Loner, his delicious solitude is irresistible. He won't be hanging around in a group of one for much longer, that's for sure.
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