█████████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▓▓
██████████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▒▒
████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▒▓
█████████████████████████████████████████ ░▒ ▒▒
░██████████████████████████████████████▒▒▓ ▓
███████████████████████████████████████ ▒░
████████████████████████████████████ █
██████████████████████████████████▒ █
▓█████████████████████████████████ ▒
████████████████████████████████ ▒▒
▒██████████████████████████████ ▒█
█████████████████████████████ ▒█▓▒
████████████████████████████ ░██░
░█░ ███████████████████████████ ████
██████████████████████████▒ ▓████
█████████████████████████▓ █████░
█████████████████████████▓ ██████░
████████████████████████▓ ███████
███████████████████████▓ ████████▒
▓█████████████████████▒ ▓█████████
████████████████████░ ░███████████▒
█████████░██████▓░ ▒█████████████▒
██████▓ ██ ▒▒█████████████████▒
░█████ ███ ░ ░▒████████████████████▒▒
██████▒░█▒██░█ █▒ ████████████████████████▒
████████▒ ▓███ ████▓█ ██████████████████████░
███████ ▒ ░██░ █ ███ ▒███████████████████████
███████░ ▒ ███ █ ░██████████████████████████
████████▓ ▓█░ ▒██████████████████████████████▒
████████░▒██▒██████████████████████████████████
████████████ █████████████████████████████████▒
████████████ ████████████████████████████████
████████████▓░██████████████████████████████▒ ████ ██ ██
█████████████ █████████████████████████████▒ ██ ██
██████████████████████████████████████████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ████
█████████████████████████████████████████ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██
███████████████████████████████████████▓ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ██████
██████████████████████████████████████ ██ ██ ██ ██ █ ██
████████████████████████████████████▒ █████ ██████ ██████ ███ █████
███████████████████████████████████▒ ▒
█████████████████████████████████ ▒▒░ ELITE RECORD PLAYERS
███████████████████████████████ ▒▒
█████████████████████████████ ▒ ▒▒
██████████████████████████▓ ▒▒▒
████████████████████████ ░▒
████████████████████ ░▒▓▒ ░
███████████████▒▒░░▒░█░ ░
┌────────┐
────┤ Info ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Artist | Advance Base
Title | Nephew In The Wild
Genre | Indie Format | Album
Source | CDDA Time | 35:24
Label | Tomlab Store | 2015
Catalog | Tom146CD Rip | 2015
Bitrate | 219 kbps Size | 58.24 MB
Freq | 44.1 kHz Encoder | Lame 3.98.4
┌────────┐
────┤ Tracks ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
01. Trisha Please Come Home 3:37
02. Might Of The Moose 2:31
03. Christmas In Dearborn 2:55
04. Pamela 2:57
05. Christmas In Milwaukee 3:21
06. Summon Satan 2:23
07. My Love For You Is Like A Puppy Underfoot 2:49
08. The Only Other Girl From Back Home 3:07
09. Nephew In The Wild 6:13
10. Kitty Winn 5:31
┌────────┐
────┤ Notes ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Advance Base is a project helmed by indie pop singer/songwriter Owen
Ashworth, previously known for his long-running indie electronic outfit
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. Born in Redwood City, California in
1977, Ashworth began making lo-fi pop songs on cheap Casio keyboards in
1997, combining wry and bitter yet heartfelt and earnest lyricism with
bright, simple melodies. Through the course of five full-length albums (all
released by German indie label Tomlab) as well as numerous singles and EPs,
CftPA showed a remarkable artistic growth, with increasingly ambitious
production and arrangements, as well as songs that occasionally rivaled the
Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt at his best.
"Nephew In The Wild" is the second full-length album Owen Ashworth has
written and recorded under the name Advance Base since retiring his former
moniker Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, as well as all of the songs he
wrote under that name. It seems obvious why he put that project to rest; by
the time of his fourth album, 2006's astonishing "Etiquette", his sound had
grown far more ambitious since his early Casio-only days, featuring more
ornate instrumentation and a cast of guest musicians and producers, and he
simply wasn't in the same place anymore (mentally and physically, as he
moved from the West Coast to Chicago around the time of the album's
release).
The final CftPA album was titled "Vs. Children", and Ashworth started a
family shortly after the album's release in 2009. As with later CftPA
releases, Ashworth's work as Advance Base still features plenty of (higher
fidelity) keyboards and drum machines, particularly Omnichord and Rhodes
electric piano, but his sound is fleshed out by acoustic instruments,
including drums and lap steel guitar, with the frequent usage of autoharp
being the most intriguing. His vocals are as dry and downtrodden as ever,
but there's a surprising country-ish warmth to his voice that simply wasn't
present in the flat, slacker-like intonation of his earlier work.
There are traces of Bruce Springsteen-like inflection in his voice, which
isn't surprising as CftPA and Concern (Owen's brother Gordon Ashworth)
released a single of Springsteen covers in 2008. Even though Ashworth might
not possess the most expressive or extroverted singing style, his vocals
have always been a perfect fit for his music, and his melodic sense remains
impeccable; many of his songs are instantly memorable after the first
listen. Lyrically, he continues to have a knack for writing quietly
powerful songs about friends, family, reminiscences, tragedies, and horror
movies, with songs titled "Christmas in Dearborn" and "Christmas in
Milwaukee" evoking a sense of frozen Midwestern loneliness.
One of the album's highlights, "My Love for You Is Like a Puppy Underfoot,"
is sung by frequent collaborator Jody Weinmann, and pleasantly brings to
mind CftPA songs such as "Holly Hobby" which were sung by Katy Davidson of
Dear Nora, not to mention all of the classic Magnetic Fields tunes sung by
Susan Anway or Claudia Gonson. Ashworth contributed to Sun Kil Moon's
acclaimed 2014 album "Benji", and while his lyrics aren't quite as
unflinching or occupied with death as Mark Kozelek's, he has a similarly
direct, affecting writing style. Ashworth has always been a remarkable
songwriter, and while his earlier recordings found him admirably making the
best of his limited resources, he's only grown more ambitious as well as
mature.
At his best, he's as poignant, heartbreaking, funny, sad, and creative as
Stephin Merritt, and "Nephew In The Wild" is a gentle reminder of this.
┌────────┐
────┤ Group ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘