Catalog Number: RFC281lp Color: Black Format: LP UPC: 810097918535 Horrible Occurrences is the title of the new Advance Base album,and there is truth in advertising. In these songs - all centered around a fictional town called Richmond and featuring an inter linked cast 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 Ashworth explains, and nearly 30 years into his songwriting career, none of his 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 is inspiring and alive, idiosyncratic and electric, pulling you closer with each word. Blending truth and fiction into a dreamlike composite, the songs convey the winding path our memory takes as the years go by, giving voice to a subconscious that is still 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 de-tailed storytelling but it also never feels auxiliary. These are beautiful songs, but they stick with you for their ability to strike dissonant, unforgettable emotional chords.