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Music

Breathless Pop and Melted Cheesecake, Allume Has Your Birthday Sorted

The Adelaide bedroom producer shares her latest track of subdued and muted pop.

Elena Nees' star sign is Cancer. This makes her insightful, humorous, and generous. Somewhat shy but imaginative too apparently. Listen to Nees' solo musical project Allume and it makes sense as sparse but infectious vocal melodies drift over understated synth sounds. It's calming and relaxed music that is also playful and fun.

A self-taught producer and singer from Adelaide, Elena follows her debut EP Why Move Very Fast At All with a new track "Birthday". Released just before her appearance at Half Strange festival this weekend, it's the kind of song that sounds so elegant yet so simple.

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Take a listen to "Birthday" and read some words from Elena below.

Noisey: When is your birthday?

Elena Ness: The 22nd of June.

Are you for celebrating birthdays or you prefer something more chilled? What did you do for your last birthday?

I'm for celebrating, but nothing too high octane. I went to the markets and had wine and spaghetti for breakfast. It was a winter day but the sun came out as we rode our bikes around. I remember feeling glad about that.

Cake?

Home Brand bavarian cheesecake, a little bit melty.

You are about to play Half Strange. They do a cool job of helping focus on the strengths of Adelaide music. How important are fests like that you?

Pretty important as it brings together artists who might otherwise be sidelined by organisers considering festivals in terms of a tighter profit/loss margin. The approach seems to be more oriented toward supporting a diverse bunch of local and interstate artists and sharing their work with appreciative audiences.

Are there many acts/artists outside electronic music that inspire you?

Absolutely. Especially in regards to lyrics and stories. Electronic music is sort of the genre I fell into through fiddling with garage band. Having no proficiency with any other instrument and making sounds "electronically". But give me anything that's bit feral, sincere, clever, and/or twangy and I'm sold. My favourite song at the moment is "Can the Circle Be Unbroken" by The Carter Family.

What's on the horizon?

That's a large question. I can't really say because I don't quite know. After Half Strange, I'll be playing with Yeo and Take Your Time in October, which'll be nice. I'm also working on a handful of songs I like, which I might chuck together to form something like another EP.

Allume plays as part of Half Strange Sep 30 at Holly Rollers Studios with Terry, Asps, Angie, Workhorse and Primo.