A couple of weeks ago, on a boat somewhere on the River, a bespectacled gentleman handed me a CD in a white cardboard case. Later that evening, he and his musical partner wowed a crowd of music lovers playing their soothing music in blustery conditions. A night to remember indeed.

Handle With Care:

The bespectacled man was called George Moorey. His musical partner was Dan Pierce. Together, they formed Ghosting. The songs they produce are delicate pieces of gold leaf. They are beautiful, exquisite things with a precious fragility.

The CD that now nestles quietly in my CD collection is the newly released single, Good Year. There are three tracks on it, the eponymous opener, "Shut Us Down" and "Flight". Like all good songs, there is a many layered depth to the deceptively simple melodies in all three tracks.

Un-Happy New Year:

"Good Year" is a song about a New Year. While everyone else is making vows against forgetting old acquaintences, the narrator of the song has to come to terms with the end of a relationship. It's a sad, poignant affair whose melody could lull you to sleep.

Sale of the Century:

The same can be said for "Shut Us Down", a song as anti-commercial as anything that Rage Against the Machine could come up only much quieter. It tells the story of a girl who goes "shopping for things she just doesn't need".

It points an accusing finger at shops who seek to profit by manipulating people like her. The sting in the tail is that the girl's obsession ended the relationship between her and the narrator. The shops shut their love down.

Sky High:

And then comes "Flight" and with it another melancholy story. "You drink like you won't get hurt", "you crash but you just don't burn" run a couple of the lyrics. The song is about someone who can't stop, sung by someone who would love them to.

A normal review of a band would end there. Three superb tracks reviewed. Perhaps you should stop reading this article and click on the link to the Ghosting web site right now.

And There's More...

But it is far from the end. Ghosting are not just three hit wonders. Add to the aforementioned songs another album's worth of inspired music and you still wouldn't be close.

In another CD entitled Sketchpad, Ghosting more than prove their abilities at writing quality songs. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be very keen on letting too many people get their hands on it. A huge pity indeed.

Bring it On:

The liner notes of Dan and George's quiet masterpiece say that this "isn't an album, think of it as a collection of rough sketches". Hence, no doubt, the title. It is therefore more of a work in progress, although it sounds as complete and well honed as any completed album should.

We can only hope that the duo change their mind about the availability of tracks like "Do You You Have To", "Bad Boys and Dogs" and "The Witch". And if they still don't want people to hear them on CD, you'll just have to hope to catch them at a gig soon.

25/09/04 - First published on www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire on this link