Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

After recently falling in love with the new Papercut’s album, You Can Have What You Want, this writer delved a little deeper into frontman Jason Quever’s work and discovered that he has collaborated considerably with his long-time buddy, Owen Ashworth, the man behind Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. Admittedly, the initial reaction was one of vague indifference to the air of woe-is-me that seemed to exude from Ashworth’s somewhat pretentiously titled moniker. Casiotone? How forcibly retro-chic. Painfully Alone? Times are bleak enough thanks. However, putting reservations aside and giving Casiotone a fair listen has brought me a baby step closer to realising how restrictive it can be to judge a book by its cover, or indeed, a band by its name. Ashworth’s recently released full-length LP, Vs. Children, follows hot on the heels of Advance Base Battery Life, a collection of singles and compilation tracks recorded between 2004 and 2007. In fact, Vs. Children is Casiotone’s fifth full-length album to date amidst a multitude of EPs, compilations and collaborations.

So when it turned out Casiotone were playing in Cork on the same weekend Ragged Words was having a little get-out-of-damn-Dublin jaunt, it jumped at the chance to see if Ashworth’s live show matched his vigour for churning out studio material. What’s more the Guinness was good and the gig was free, compared to the €14 being charged for their Dublin appearance the following night. After a series of warm-up acts, including a solo stint from Crayonsmith’s Ciaran Smith and a bizarre continuous mini-set from Concern – the project of Ashworth’s brother Gordon – that featured harsh analogue pedal and field-recordings building to deafening heights before mellowing into something akin to ambience, Casiotone finally took to the stage that had been set up in the corner of the bar and were greeted by an crowd who were visibly salivating with excitement.

Ashworth handled the first few songs solo whilst his bandmates huddled in a corner beside the speakers, earplugs in situ. The dulcet tones of ‘White Corolla’ perfectly complemented the playfully animated mood that was rapidly infecting everyone in the room as a sea of Corkonians invaded the tiny dancefloor in front of the stage. A handful of competent songs followed until Ashworth’s band joined the party, at which point the merits of Casiotone as live performers skyrocketed. Alone, Ashworth’s performance is personal and soft-spoken, like his lyrics; a vibe which is personified by this slightly awkward man gazing through thick-rimmed glasses at his beloved Casio keyboard and a plethora of electronic oddities. As soon as the additional instrumentation began, thoughts of ‘very nice, dear’ were replaced by ‘what a fucking great band’; such was the power of their performance. The drumming in particular was superlative and added much-needed rhythm and beefing-up to the set. Together the band and the audience, many of whom seemed to be familiar with Casiotone’s songs, visited the characters that Ashworth creates and repeatedly checks in on like a concerned friend. ‘Travelling Salesman’s Young Wife’ shone as one of the night’s stand-out songs with the familiar melody of ‘When the Saints go Marching in’ guesting on the last few bars. Calls for ‘one more tune’ were satisfied, something less and less common these days, and the band really appeared to be feeding off the audiences enthusiasm as they finished on a high note.

On the way back to The Pale, I stopped for petrol in some rural outpost and happened upon the band again. While most of the convoy stretched their legs and sipped coffee in the Sunday sunshine, the drummer had wandered from the pack and was talking pensively to a dog that was yapping over the fence of the neighbouring garden. The gesture somehow seemed to touch on the elements that set Casiotone apart from some of the electronic pretenders currently doing the rounds. They really are in a little world of their own where characters are created, keyboards are friends and animals talk back and do the Macarena. And it really works in their favour, because they believe in it all, and as a result their music brims with hope and high spirits.