Grandmother's Pearls

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Scattered Pearls

Wow... talk about artist growth. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, the recording name of Owen Ashworth, is a genuinely talented songwriter who has been working under that moniker since the late 90s, primarily using cheap keyboards and literally recording in his bedroom on 4-track.

Now, with his new album Etiquette, Ashworth has made the jump to bigger, better things, with huge arrangements and better recording techniques, guest singers and musicians. With pianos, organs, synthesizers, strings, flute, pedal steel guitar and drum machines, the album is a joy to listen to. Even on the sad songs - of which there are more than a few - all of the music and arrangements are really quite beautiful. Ashworth wrote all but one of the songs, which is a cover of a song by Parenthetical Girls, which he arranged as a guest-member of the band. Four of the songs feature lead vocals by Ashworth's friends: Katy Davidson of Dear Nora, Sam Mickens of the Dead Science, and Jenn Herbinson. The album also features Jherek Bischoff and Jason Quever, of the Dead Science and the Papercuts, respectively, who also helped Ashworth engineer and produce the album.

Taken in total, Etiquette is a real stunner of a record - from poppy, propulsive techno-ish songs like this one, to Waits-ian piano-bar-jazz, it is an album that I can listen to over and over, which I've been doing since I got my copy of it. I love it.

You should do the same once it is available - the album is released in a couple of weeks by Germany's Tomlab and will be available to purchase directly from the label's store, or from your local indie retailer, or these fine online merchants: Forced Exposure, Insound (US), and Boomkat (UK).

For more CFTPA-goodness, check out his Myspace page, the Tomlab page, or his Livejournal page - have a look at his tour line up! Looks like a crazy March...