Cherrie Bea - Pearlescent

Cherrie Bea
Pearlescent
Series of Taboo
Italy, 2026
12"

My love of dance music doesn’t always get a lot of air time on this site, but when it’s good I like it, when it’s great I love it, and this one is just beyond.

Cherrie Bea—whomever they might be—is responsible for probably my favorite dance 12” of the decade so far with Jafar’s 21st, soulful smooth-jazz house with a remix by the legend Nuron and more than a little je ne sais quoi.

So I was hoping for a follow-up, and here it is: four cuts of superlative neon-lit electro house starting with the title track “Pearlescent.” It’s so smooth, rounded, and libidinal that my first thought is guilty pleasure, but the development and sophistication of these arrangements is what really sets them apart. “Calibos” is a little quirkier, maybe taking a page out of Nuron’s playbook with that kicky breakbeat, but unmistakably Cherrie Bea with these funky licks and sexy keyboard runs over an electro slap bass that’s easy to smile at but hard to deny.

Flip it. “Fortress” starts out a little more organic—drum machine that sounds like drums and an alluring house sample. Then we’re right back in the Cherrie zone, funky interlocking synth riffs sounding like the future circa 1988.

Close it out with “Two From The Sea, Five Fathoms Down,” more intricate and interlocking, flexing what this producer is capable of. If I had a DJ gig coming up, I’d be agonized to choose. 

If you only like austere techno, dark ambient, and IDM, scroll on, but if you like fun dance music AT ALL, it’s too easy to recommend this one. Way better than it strictly needs to be.