Casiotone for the Painfully Alone wants to be in the trombone
There comes a time when one wonders about just how appropriate a band name is. Owen Ashworth’s Casiotone for the Painfully Alone project seems to have exceeded it’s original remit. Certainly the casiotone part has been redundant for a while, as new instrumentation was experimented with. Now though, even the painfully alone seems rather outdated. Settling down and raising a family isn’t the alien concept that it once was.
That covers what we don’t have. What are we left with? Elaborate tales of a bank robber going for “one last score” before he settles down. I say elaborate, but it’s really all quite simple. The elaborate is how well it’s illustrated. Less than two minutes long, and yet you still have time to understand, even sympathise, with these characters. Little details, from the car stuffed with bottles and stubbed out cigarettes, to the getaway route of “all right turns” so “the lights won’t get us caught” give colour to an otherwise familiar world.
Musically, it’s more accomplished than anything Ashworth has done previously. It’s not a great change from 2006’s Etiquette, but there are flurries that hint of greater abilities here. It’s just a shame that the second I reach the When The Saints Go Marching In sample, the only thing I can picture is Homer Simpson butchering it.
Vs. Children will be released via Tomlab on April 7. In the US at least. God knows about anywhere else.
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