ADVANCE BASE Vinyl & CDs

Review: Advance Base makes is the name given to melancholic electronic story songs made by US indie label owner and musician Owen Ashworth. Ashworth can sing the phonebook and has mastered the art of cutting all the fat from his words to deliver succinct, compelling stories to lo-fi Daniel Johnston-ish music. ‘The Year I Lived In Richmond’ doesn’t colour anything in metaphor and it’s a frank tale about a woman who had stabbed a burglar and his experience living close to it. The album title is as apt as could be. Meanwhile, ‘How You Got Your Picture on the Wall’ is heartbreaking in its delivery and has a clever twist at the end. Ashworth under his moniker Advance Base is an outsider hero with a level of artistry and songwriting that's quite rare to find. Absolutely stunning.