Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

“Lonesome New Mexican Nights” by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, (Stationary Heart Recordings 7-inch):

Chicagoan Owen Ashworth is a lo-fi kingpin of sorts, having masterminded an absorbing catalog of junkyard electro-pop under the alias Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. His self-imposed limitations — four tracks, battery-powered keyboards and thrift-store electronics — disappeared in 2006 with the release of Etiquette and an ensuing full-band tour. The revamped Casiotone provides more creative latitude for Ashworth’s raw, threadbare emotings with undercurrents of ’80s goth-pop. For Saturday’s Fourth-Annual Sonic Spectrum Anniversary Party, Ashworth will be joined by the imaginative electro-folk of Australia’s Clue to Kalo and hometown rock tycoons Ad Astra Per Aspera and Ghosty.