"bo en" (real name Calum Bowen) is a British experimental pop musician, whose work combines feelings of nostalgia, video game soundtrack inspired music, and plenty of Gratuitous Japanese. His debut album, Pale Machine, was released on September 6, 2013, and remains his best-known work. He is currently based in London, UK.
In addition to his regular discography, he's composed music for a number of independent video games, including Pikuniku, Snipperclips, and Crossy Road Castle.
The music of bo en includes the following tropes:
- Animated Music Video: "Pale Machine" had an interactive 3D music video by Ben Esposito that allowed viewers to manipulate various scenes timed to the music.
- Bilingual Bonus: Fully understanding his lyrics requires one to know both Japanese and English.
- Dark Reprise: While pale machine 2 has remixes of all of the songs on the original album, the follow up to "Pale Machine" itself is much shorter, and far sadder. Instead of the anguish the singer experiences during the chorus and their ensuing breakdown, in "Paler, still Paler" the song entirely consists of bo murmuring the chorus to himself in a defeated tone of voice.
- Eagleland: Montgomery Bowen, bo en's "American brother" persona sometimes seen live, is of the Beautiful variety. He's a guitar-playing cowboy with a southern drawl, and he acts exciteable and friendly to the audience.
- Gratuitous Japanese: bo en sprinkles Japanese liberally throughout his work, largely stemming from his fascination with Japan and Japanese culture.
- Leitmotif: A leitmotif is carried throughout Pale Machine, starting with violins in the intro and finally being given lyrics in the final track, "My Time."
- Logo Joke: Pale Machine originally had simple colorful text depicting bo en's name in katakana. Remixes and rereleases of the album would usually take the katakana and, appropriately, rearrange it in increasingly abstract ways (the remaster jumbling it and stretching it out over the album cover, pale machine 2 turning them into a set of skyscraper lights in the background).
- Lyrical Dissonance: Some of his more upbeat songs tend to have darker undertones in the lyrics.
- Medley Overture: pale machine 2, instead of beginning with the short instrumental track that includes the leitmotif, begins with an orchestral medley of all of the songs featured in the original album tied together by the short track.
- Musical Nod: In "Money Won't Pay", a bar from "friend" appropriately plays when the singer says "think about your friends" in the second verse.
- Working Class Anthem: "Money Won't Pay" fits the bill. It talks about the exhausting experience of working long hours just to keep a roof over your head and avoid social stigma—and if you're doing that, why not take a break and have fun?
Bo en's Let's Plays include the following:
- I Need a Freaking Drink: When Omori starts getting dark during the Truth segment, he reaches for a glass of wine.
- Not So Stoic: Bo en nearly starts crying when coming across the Truth section of OMORI and realizing that the player character Sunny killed his older sister by accident, pushing her down a flight of stairs in a fit of rage.
