ELEN NEVER SLEEPS RUM

I am lying right now on a sofa not moving, spinning out to some codeine pills. Injury is not completely fun, but it has its moments. The show, however, must go on. So let's go on.

Found this a while ago but have not covered it because I don't know why actually. It's very different to what you'd normally hear, has a unique sound, relaxing vibe - all the trappings of a good song. So, meeting those little requirements, I decided that it should definitely be written about.

This is Elen Never Sleeps - "The Reverb King" according to his Facebook page. And yeah, he does use reverb very nicely. He is from Tokyo and this is his ten-days'-old song 'Rum'. I am not sure exactly what it has to do with rum, or any alcohol for that matter, but it sounds good. Ooo-eee yes it sounds good.

It's kind of like a skiffly lounge-jazz song (mainly from the beat and the vocal), but there is a healthy of rainy-day-ambient-chill-sensitivity in here, too. Ch-ch-check it out.

Although I can't make out all of the lyrics, the gentle voice that sings them certainly has an endearing romantic quality, with a lot of effort put into the surprisingly gutsy "Somebody's searching for you..." towards the end. It goes perfectly with the muted guitar chords, purposely offhand and laid-back. What will strike you first, however, is the bird-calling noise (or what sounds like a bird calling - but it could be a sampled squeaky toy, who knows), but it fits the song somehow, giving an image of some bleak beach somewhere with just a few lonely seagulls circling the shore.

This, I'd say, falls into the trend in Japan at the moment of 80s style music, the heavily reverbed soft guitar melodies in 'Rum' being evidence of that, as well as the nouveau-crooner vocals, equally reverbed and the whole thing is like a gust of a pleasant breeze. The origin and destination are as mysteriously unknown as each other. A really nice unique sound here. A second, very nice song that you should listen to by Elen Never Sleeps is 'White Surrender' - more electronic, but still the same vibe. Keep it up!

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