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12"
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HITS 001-12
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A record label is arguably the fullest possible expression of an email account; fecund with attachments, download links, and unhealthy power dynamics primed to bloom into lifelong parasitic relationships. And even a cursory glance at the roster of label founders reveals the full spectrum of our potential as a species, from the absolute dregs of humanity to successful touring DJs. Backed by a used CD billionaire and an angel investment from Major League Baseball's "New Voices in Techno" initiative, Perel's new label Hits Hits Hits! is poised to thrive amid a landscape littered with rivals with names like Sidechain Addict and Heuristics Audio. And Perel is ready to put her music where her mouth is with "1 Life" the inaugural single in the imprint's catalog. It has gained early support from promo list veteran Liquid Cory: "Will the title track make any self-respecting 10-year-old 'Do the Detention Dance'? I've been told my opinions are culturally worthless, that I am the fit arbiter of nothing at all. So I feel grateful that there's also an extended version so I have more time to decide. And the remix by Canadian taste-haver Jex Opolis made me forget that my ex believed a rumor that I had choked to death bobbing for apples. Respect."
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CD
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KOMP 171CD
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The dancefloor as devotional is a trope as old as the club itself. But, with her new album, Jesus Was An Alien, Perel subverts the stakes of our collective communion: Who are our arms raised to? Who are we seeking salvation from? "Jesus Was An Alien is a discourse about whether Jesus was an actual alien," she explains, "but also a social debate about what is and implies religion today." She offers up her provocative second record -- her first on Kompakt -- as a soundtrack for the listener's own journey through the intricacies and ironies of modern belief. Picking up on the themes she brought to her debut, the 2018's LP Hermetica on DFA, Perel has created ten tracks rich with spirit and allusion. Her influences are myriad, from the indie dance hitmakers of the early 2000s -- Hot Chip, Simian Mobile Disco, Justice -- to rave compilations that predate her ascent to the DJ booth, to more abstract inputs. Living with synesthesia, she says, "I feel emotions and colors piling up inside me . . . My tracks are color streams that tell a story." Jesus Was An Alien is not just multicolored -- it's multi-lingual too, slipping in-and-out of tongues in a single track, sometimes dispensing with words altogether (the ecstatic breakdown of "The Principle of Vibration"). The album features Perel's voice almost entirely but for her special collaboration with Canadian songwriter Marie Davidson on the title track. "Jesus Was An Alien" stirs like a late-night revelation, a heady discovery awakened in the dark. Perel lays out a fiercely disciplined electro pulse, with Davidson's proclamations growing more fervent over the song's sensual stride. Perel drives further not only spiritually but sonically across the ten tracks, taking thrilling production risks: standouts include her breathy vocals atop a melodic piano strut on "Matrix"; the delirious blur of ghostly chimes and disembodied voices of "Religion"; and the retro radiance of "The Principle of Vibration", in which Perel exhorts you to "come on and vibe" over an athletic riff and shuffling percussion. "Kill The System", meanwhile, hits the listener with tense acid pulses, building to only an imagined release and calls out the end of patriarchy. Album closer "Am Kanal" starts as a pensive cloud of a track, finally breaking into a rich textural rain of synths and stabs. The variety throughout Jesus Was An Alien underlines Perel's purpose in this latest project; she's experimenting her way to answers -- or maybe just more questions.
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LP
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KOM 451LP
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LP version. The dancefloor as devotional is a trope as old as the club itself. But, with her new album, Jesus Was An Alien, Perel subverts the stakes of our collective communion: Who are our arms raised to? Who are we seeking salvation from? "Jesus Was An Alien is a discourse about whether Jesus was an actual alien," she explains, "but also a social debate about what is and implies religion today." She offers up her provocative second record -- her first on Kompakt -- as a soundtrack for the listener's own journey through the intricacies and ironies of modern belief. Picking up on the themes she brought to her debut, the 2018's LP Hermetica on DFA, Perel has created ten tracks rich with spirit and allusion. Her influences are myriad, from the indie dance hitmakers of the early 2000s -- Hot Chip, Simian Mobile Disco, Justice -- to rave compilations that predate her ascent to the DJ booth, to more abstract inputs. Living with synesthesia, she says, "I feel emotions and colors piling up inside me . . . My tracks are color streams that tell a story." Jesus Was An Alien is not just multicolored -- it's multi-lingual too, slipping in-and-out of tongues in a single track, sometimes dispensing with words altogether (the ecstatic breakdown of "The Principle of Vibration"). The album features Perel's voice almost entirely but for her special collaboration with Canadian songwriter Marie Davidson on the title track. "Jesus Was An Alien" stirs like a late-night revelation, a heady discovery awakened in the dark. Perel lays out a fiercely disciplined electro pulse, with Davidson's proclamations growing more fervent over the song's sensual stride. Perel drives further not only spiritually but sonically across the ten tracks, taking thrilling production risks: standouts include her breathy vocals atop a melodic piano strut on "Matrix"; the delirious blur of ghostly chimes and disembodied voices of "Religion"; and the retro radiance of "The Principle of Vibration", in which Perel exhorts you to "come on and vibe" over an athletic riff and shuffling percussion. "Kill The System", meanwhile, hits the listener with tense acid pulses, building to only an imagined release and calls out the end of patriarchy. Album closer "Am Kanal" starts as a pensive cloud of a track, finally breaking into a rich textural rain of synths and stabs. The variety throughout Jesus Was An Alien underlines Perel's purpose in this latest project; she's experimenting her way to answers -- or maybe just more questions.
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12"
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KOM 447EP
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Welcome Perel to the "Real" Kompakt mothership. As a first major statement since her 2018 debut album Hermetica, Perel, the newest addition to the Kompakt family, delivers her startling new single Real. Perel gets face to face with the world as it is now: "Has the world always been that gloomy? Or is it just a cataract? Maybe I'll just wake up tomorrow from a deep sleep and then all of this isn't real." Tellingly, Perel deals with this the best way she knows how, essaying a lush, melancholy paean, wrenched from the soul, and lit up by her unabashed love of synth pop and electronic music. Perel broke cover when she was signed up to James Murphy's legendary DFA label, with whom she released a string of lovely singles and her debut album, Hermetica, a gorgeous, deeply dreamy collection of songs, some featuring her Nico-esque smoky singing voice. Balancing her singular productions with a career as an in-demand DJ, Perel's come a long way from her early years, growing up in Saxony as a youth in love with the sounds of new wave and gothic pop. Recent EPs Karlsson (Uncanny Valley, 2019) and Star (Running Back, 2021) consolidate an impression of an artist with a singular, unswayable vision. But Real is something else. There are hints here of Moroder-esque disco, in the pinprick arpeggio that percolates through the song, and of the Berlin School of electronic music, in the lush synths. You can still hear touches of post-punk and Neue Deutsche Welle, too, in "Real"'s moody countenance, and Perel's vocals, but it's all delivered with the knowing insouciance that's fundamental to any great pop moment. Riven with desire and despair, "Real" is a hymnal sigh for a world unmade. "I sometimes feel so disconnected from the world," Perel sighs. "To me, it's hard to ignore the problems of the world in order to experience any happiness or joy. It eats you from the inside." But Perel fights on: "Despite, there's so much to be grateful about."
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