I keep looking at other logging modules because log4perls configuration syntax and general appearance just seems strange and unperlish to me

You might then want to use Log4perl's easy mode, which is as perlish as it could get:

use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy);
Log::Log4perl->easy_init({ 
    level => $INFO, 
    file  => ">>foo.txt" });

DEBUG "Doesn't make it.";
INFO "Hella!\n";
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