Slow Magic: How To Run Away (Downtown Records, 2014)

September 11, 2014 at 8:34 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Slow Magic: How To Run Away

Anonymous masked producer Slow Magic stole the show when he opened for Gold Panda’s tour last year, and he’s embarking on a headlining tour now (and playing the Blind Pig on 10/1!). His recordings simply do not prepare you for his illuminating, thundering live presence, which involves electric voodoo masks, huge drums, and audience interaction. But taken as they are, his albums are enjoyable slices of post-chillwave bliss, with sunny melodies, chopped vocal samples (few actual lyrics, and usually they’re just the title repeated, as on “Let U Go” and “On Yr Side”), and electro-funk synths (especially on “Youth Group”), with a few somewhat trancey melodies thrown in (“Waited 4 U”). There’s moments where tracks seem downtempo and melancholy, but then switch to an uptempo dancey beat (as on “Bear Dance”). The album’s 6-minute final track is appropriately called “Closer”, and pulls out all the stops, with trap-influenced beats and ecstatic cut-up vocal samples, building to the album’s emotional climax, breaking it down, and then doing it again.

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The Answer Is In The Beat