Advance Base Horrible Occurences

Horrible Occurrences is the title of the new Advance Base album,and there is truth in advertising. In these songs_all centeredaround a fictional town called Richmond and featuring an interlinkedcast of characters_you will hear stories of death and disappearance,climactic confrontations and unsolved mysteries. "Richmondis just this place where all the bad memories live," Owen Ashworthexplains, and nearly 30 years into his songwriting career, none ofhis records have packed quite the emotional intensity of this one.And yet something alchemical happens in the telling of these tales.Like a masterful short story collection, Horrible Occurrences isinspiring and alive, idiosyncratic and electric, pulling you closer witheach word.In the six years since his last full-length collection of originals,2018's Animal Companionship, Ashworth gathered ideas fromperforming live and traveling around the country, returning to citiesthat he once called home and revisiting old ghosts, memories,and fragments of unfinished ideas. Blending truth and fiction into adreamlike composite, the songs convey the winding path our memorytakes as the years go by, giving voice to a subconscious that isstill unpacking old memories for new wisdom.Drawing inspiration from the otherworldly loneliness depicted on'80s masterpieces like Arthur Russell's World of Echo and BruceSpringsteen's Nebraska, the music never crowds Ashworth's detailedstorytelling but it also never feels auxiliary. These are beautifulsongs, but they stick with you for their ability to strike dissonant,unforgettable emotional chords. It is this pervasive empathy inAshworth's songwriting_along with his writerly gift for clear settingsand complex characters_that has made him a guiding light for somany independent artists.The things that happen throughout Horrible Occurrences are whatwe tend to call "unspeakable"_events that draw gut-level responsesjust from acknowledging that they could happen. But part of thetriumph of t...