Advance Base is Owen Ashworth (formerly known as Casiotone For the Painfully Alone) and is one of my very favourite songwriters. I loved pretty much everything he put out as CFTPA, and also loved his debut as Advance Base, A Shut-In’s Prayer. He makes literary, lo-fi, “depressed” pop music, or as his bio puts it, “conjures dreamy waltzes, heavy-hearted ballads & electro pop torch songs from Rhodes electric piano, sampler, & drum machine. Advance Base songs deal with deceased racehorses, estranged siblings, disappearing loves & all things long lost.” If that doesn’t sound good to you then I’m not sure we could be friends.
Ashworth has just released Plastic Owen Band, a new “album” of covers, demos, compilation tracks and rarities produced between 2011 and 2014. The covers include Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bill Withers, Neil Young and even Casiotone’s own ‘Natural Light’.’Natural Light’ is classic Ashworth, a low-key, yearning song for a lost love. It is has lines like this:
“I got some news on you from a friend
you’re in Charlotte again
teaching Spanish at high school
he said you’re going by Joy
you cut your hair like a boy
& you don’t talk to your old friends
I found a picture from before the fight
we’re in natural light
& you’re sitting on my lap
like everything’s alright”
There’s also a remix of Advance Base’s ‘Summer Music’ (featuring Julie Byrne, who we wrote about here) which appeared on the aforementioned A Shut-In’s Prayer. It’s a great illustration of how a change of name has not meant a change of direction (or quality for that matter).
“There’s no comfort in sympathy
she’s upstate with her family
I’m still at the same address
I still believe I could love her best”
It also has a bizarre video in which Ashworth reveals himself to be a little fuzzy blue guy, a longlost inhabitant of Sesame Street.
Plastic Owen Band also has some rather nice instrumental tracks that show that Ashworth’s talents extend far beyond song writing. Advance Base has an album of them here, if you would like to hear more.
You can grab Plastic Owen Band on a pay-what-you-can basis right now.
P.S. If you’re not familiar with Ashworth’s work then please put that right immediately.