Slow Magic

Upstart producer Slow Magic is what you might call a day glo enigma–the producer/DJ has never revealed his face in public, instead performing in a neon wolf-like mask that illuminates while he plays. He refers to himself as “the listener’s imaginary friend,” and is so committed to retaining his anonymity that he even kept the mask on while setting up for an in store performance last year at Music Millennium, something that made for quite an interesting visual, and scared a few of the folks perusing the used jazz section half to death.

While much is made of the attention-grabbing mask, it’s more than a gimmick, and serves Slow Magic’s mystic-sounding music, his enthralling live show and overall asthetic; one based around the fact that the artist behind the mask pours all of his creativity into the Slow Magic project. From the mask, to the album covers, to the stage show–everything is related, and when we spoke over the phone Slow Magic told me that the ambiguity the mask affords him has helped foster his creativity over the years. (While I’m not sure if he was wearing the mask at the time, I’d really like to picture him doing so while speaking to me on a pay phone on the side of the road on a deserted highway.) Over the course of both Triangle (2012) and How To Run Away (2014), he has proven himself an ethereal and nuanced producer, weaving intricately layered songs together that are more akin to a stoned groove than a shirtless bro violently fist pumping. In a genre not exactly renown for its subtlety, it’s both a welcome and effective take.

But that’s not to say Slow Magic doesn’t know how to throw down when the time is right, and the producer has also distanced himself from other artists of his ilk by incorporating live drums into his set. That, combined with the fact that he usually ends up in the audience dancing and drumming like an otherworldly neon Pied Piper, has made Slow Magic one of the more intriguing and beloved young electronic acts today.

Slow Magic takes the Wonder Ballroom’s stage on 12/12 with longtime cohorts Giraffage and Lindsay Lowend, and he told me there will be remixes of songs both old and new worked into the new live show. It sounds intriguing, and honestly–who doesn’t want to party with a creative weirdo in a glow-in-the-dark wolf mask? »

– Donovan Farley

Slow Magic will co-headline Wonder Ballroom with Giraffage December 12