- "Mirror Shield," the first track on Perfume Advert's Big Gete Star, opens with a cascade of dub chords, layered and processed to form an impenetrably dense texture. The torrent lessens after ten seconds or so—just enough for a bumpy house beat to surface—but it doesn't quite go away for the remainder of the EP. Almost to the detriment of everything else: the Salford duo's simple drums fulfil minimum requirements, and other bits of detail—the hint of a soulful vocal here, a synth arp there—are kept low in the mix. Perfume Advert focus more on getting their chords as rich and dappled as possible, sending them pinging across the stereo field in all manner of pleasing shapes.
It's an approach that works about as well here as it did on last year's Kappa Downs EP. "Mirror Shield" makes up the record's more energetic half, alongside "Destiny Bond," whose agile bassline might have given it some extra kick were it more prominent in the mix. Elsewhere, the mood is more reflective. "Single White Junker"'s chords disturb thick clouds of hi-end static, giving the dubby drums down below a muffled, dislocated quality. "Gown" sounds like a bleached-out version of Glacher Lustwerk's "I Neva Seen." The song's deep house trudge is layered with scratchy percussion loops, the melodies are sparse and the dub chords unfold in thick inky swirls, like the creeping fingers of a rising tide.
TracklistA1 Mirror Shield
A2 Single White Junker
B1 Destiny Bond
B2 Gown