Answering Machine Music

answering machine music

Track Listings
1. Theme from Answering Machine Music
2. When the Bridge Toll Was a Dollar
3. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone Joins the Foreign Legion
4. Cold Shoulder
5. Rice Dream Girl
6. Secretest Crush
7. Normal Suburban Lifestyle Is a Near Impossibility
8. Baby It's You
9. You Never Call
10. Daina Flores You're the One
11. Beeline
12. I Should Have Kissed You When I Had the Chance
13. Hey Jelly {From Scumrock}
14. Hotel Huntington Sigh
15. It's Winter and You Don't Love Me Anymore
16. Seattle Washington

Answering Machine Music: A Brief Album in Twelve Parts,Casiotone for the Painfully Alone,Tomlab,Electronica,Experimental,Indie Electronic,Indie Rock,Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop

Answering Machine Music
Answering Machine Music: A Brief Album in Twelve Parts
Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
  • You don't love me anymore
 Answering Machine Music: A Brief Album in Twelve Parts
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
Manufacturer: Tomlab
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

GeneralGeneral | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Indie RockIndie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Electronic PopElectronic Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
ElectronicaElectronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
Pop RockPop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Experimental MusicExperimental Music | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
ElectronicaElectronica | Dance & DJ | Indie Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00006LVH3
Release Date: 2002-10-29

Tracks:

  1. Theme from Answering Machine Music
  2. When the Bridge Toll Was a Dollar
  3. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone Joins the Foreign Legion
  4. Cold Shoulder
  5. Rice Dream Girl
  6. Secretest Crush
  7. Normal Suburban Lifestyle Is a Near Impossibility
  8. Baby It's You
  9. You Never Call
  10. Daina Flores You're the One
  11. Beeline
  12. I Should Have Kissed You When I Had the Chance
  13. Hey Jelly [From Scumrock]
  14. Hotel Huntington Sigh
  15. It's Winter and You Don't Love Me Anymore
  16. Seattle Washington

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars You don't love me anymore.......2007-03-24

I first encountered Casiotone For the Painfully Alone right after a nasty breakup, and the name of the band attracted me.

Basically it's what it sounds like -- rippling, twipping, skipping and clashing electronica, with lyrics about lonely souls and unfulfilled loves, ie the "painfully alone." Owen Ashworth's first album "Answering Machine Music: A Brief Album in Twelve Parts" is unpolished compared to his later work, but still a sweet, snappy piece of work.

It opens with a few keyboard chimes and some hesitant beats, as if Ashworth is chronicling his first musical steps. Then it opens into "When the Bridge Toll Was One Dollar," a clashing mix of thrashy electronic beats and smoothly sensual melody. It's nice for a minute or so, but I was starting to get a headache.

Ashworth has more luck in the songs that follow -- primarily it falls into two categories, those of warm little glitchpop, and misty ballads with some angular beats laid over them. About halfway through, Ashworth tries out some other styles, such as the buzzing electronic wall-o'-sound, and smoothing out the beats into an undulating little mass of electropoppiness.

Oh, and just because I want to mention it: the shimmery rattly "A Normal Suburban Lifestyle is a Near Impossibility Once You've Fallen in Love with an International Spy." Isn't that a great title?

"Answering Machine Music: A Brief Album in Twelve Parts" did do the trick of lifting my spirits, with Ashworth's bittersweet view of love and the world. By the time he had sung, "And we've all but lost our chance/for a summertime romance," I wasn't feeling particularly unhappy anymore.

But the album does have some flaws -- the songs are a bit too rough and a bit repetitive, and often it sounds like a musician getting acquainted with the music he's trying to spin. However, he does gain a great deal of skill in the second half of the album, which contains little bittersweet melodies entirely made from electronic instruments -- chimey, sparkly, sharp and shimmering all mushed together.

Ashworth does his own vocals for this, ranging from a sort of Jeff-Mangumy murmur in the background to a slightly nasal folky-sound. And his adorable lyrics are almost exclusively concerned with missing out on love, and the universal sorrow of trying to express unrequited love. "And I don't understand/why we stopped holding hands/I know it's cold outside/but do you have to/wear mittens all the time?"

"Answering Machine Music: A Brief Album in Twelve Parts" is a flawed but memorable little debut, and the rough form of Casiotone For the Painfully Alone's later beautiful work.
Sound Effects: Answering Machine Messages
Average customer rating: Not rated
    		Sound Effects: Answering Machine Messages
    Various Artists
    Manufacturer: Kado
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    Sound EffectsSound Effects | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
    ASIN: B000BB193A
    Release Date: 2000-11-21

    Tracks:

    1. Dial and Complain [F]
    2. Right to Remian Silent
    3. Twilight Phone [M]
    4. African Drums
    5. Bullfrogs
    6. Jibba Jabba [M]
    7. Heavy Breather [M]
    8. House of Horrors
    9. Rowdy Crowd [F/M]
    10. Big Ben [F]
    11. Stormy Nite
    12. Jazz Club [M]
    13. Belly Dancer [F]
    14. Honky Tonk [M]
    15. French Baroque [M]
    16. Broadway Opening [F]
    17. Party Theme [F]
    18. Screamer
    19. Snow Blizzard [M]
    20. Orgy [M]
    21. Provocative [F]
    22. Echo Canyon [M]
    23. Conventional Message /Conventional Message [F]
    24. Railroad [F]
    25. Heavy Traffic [M]
    26. Man Climbing Stairs [F]
    27. Visitor at Door [F]
    28. Office Phone Ringing [M]
    29. Fire Alarm
    30. Sexy Laugh [M]
    31. Group Laughing [F]
    32. Birds in a Zoo [F]
    33. Mosquito
    34. Canaries [F]
    35. Australia's Outback [M]
    36. At the Shore [F]
    37. Swarm of Flies
    38. Eerie Wind [F]
    39. Ocean Liner
    40. Space Launch [M]
    41. War Sounds [M]
    42. Bugle Charge [M]
    43. Cuckoo Clock [F]
    44. Submarine Dive
    45. Doorbell [F]
    46. Grandfather Clock [M]
    47. Old Steamer Horn [F]
    48. Outer Space [M]
    49. Telemarketer [F]
    50. Elephants
    51. Crying Puppies
    52. Rooster Crowding
    53. Cooing Doves
    54. Wolves
    55. Bugle Call
    56. Chickens
    57. Barking Dogs
    58. Horse Neighing
    59. Lion Roar
    60. Racing Cars
    61. Speed Boat
    62. Bag Pipes
    63. Taps
    64. Whistling Shells
    65. Dentist Sounds
    66. Dripping Water
    67. Pistol Shots
    68. Truck Horn
    69. Rain on Leaves
    70. Wind and Thunder
    71. Men Laughing
    72. Intercom Paging
    73. Elevator
    74. Kettle Boiling
    75. Poker Machine Jackpot
    Answering Machine (Remixes)
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      		Answering Machine (Remixes)
      Green Velvet
      Manufacturer: Cajual Records
      ProductGroup: Music
      Binding: Audio CD

      GeneralGeneral | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
      GeneralGeneral | Techno | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
      GeneralGeneral | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
      ASIN: B00008EWMJ
      Release Date: 1997-12-09

      Rock Music:

      1. Answers to Nothing [Extra tracks] [Import]
      2. Appointed Hour
      3. A Quiet Revolution [Import]
      4. Assault & Battery [Import]
      5. Aware Compilation, Vol. 2
      6. Best of Hall & Oates (Starting All Over Again)
      7. Best of Marshall Tucker Band: Capricorn Years
      8. Blue Jukebox [Import]
      9. Bring It on/Liquid Skin [Import]
      10. Can't Be Wrong

      Rock Music

      rock music