After an impressive 2017 that ranged from playing alongside DJ Stingray, Helena Hauff, and Jeff Mills, the release of his debut album, “Very Good Person”, and a slew of appearances on platforms such as Inverted Audio, NTS, Radar Radio and Resident Advisor , Vancouver based Korean-Canadian producer, performer, photographer and Forth collective label manager Joel Eel is proving to be one of the most inspired and distinctive alchemists of contemporary electronic music, having developed his raw and energetic, as perfectly balanced and sophisticated, fusion of different elements spanning from techno, EBM, acid, electro and industrial with post-punk undertones.
On September 14th, he will drop his self-released sophomore album titled “Performing a Crime”, a concept of how being in love, can feel like a crime. It is the observation of two people exchanging a conversation of misunderstanding, by allowing emotions to become reactionary and eventually overpowering the positive motive of one’s intent. The emotional moment where two people exchange tenderness one day, can be ultimately forgotten or destroyed the next. All loving, expressive ideas no longer resonate, due to the amplification of an emotional period. Social media contributes further to this matter by simplifying complexity — an act of unfollowing, the different delivery of perpetual care.
The album also explores concepts of love — by reinvention, through self-love / self-care and embracing vulnerability as a method of strength rather than a default of weakness. While a long-term attachment to amorosos is dissected by a beam of light, it cuts between the peak of two valleys.
First preview from the album, the title-track “Performing a Crime”, bridges an emotional and hypnotizing resonance and brooding intensity, merging vigorous industrial beats, acid synths and distorted sounds combined with his seductive, whispered, cold robotic vocals encapsulating feelings of an instictive, provocative, almost disillusioned nature, to create a dark, intricate and futuristic soundscape that shakes and unsettles at the same time.
