Slow Magic / How To Run Away
Album: How To Run Away   Collection:General
Artist:Slow Magic   Added:Nov 2014
Label:Downtown Records  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2014-12-05 Pull Date: 2015-02-06
Week Ending: Feb 8 Feb 1 Jan 25 Jan 18 Jan 4 Dec 21 Dec 14 Dec 7
Airplays: 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1

Recent Airplay
1. Oct 21, 2017: A Night on the Roof
On Yr Side
4. Jan 28, 2015: After the After Party
Still Life
2. Mar 13, 2015: Electronic Outlet (3/13)
Girls
5. Jan 23, 2015: Electric Outlet (1/23)
Closer, Waited 4 U
3. Feb 06, 2015: Electric Outlet (2/6)
Closer, Waited 4 U, Girls
6. Jan 19, 2015: Radio Personality
Girls

Album Review
Alejandra Salazar
Reviewed 2014-12-01
Slow Magic
How to Run Away
Downtown Records, 2014

Slow Magic’s sophomore effort is a continuation of his earlier work: all instruments, synth and reverb (any vocals are mostly distorted into sounds rather than words) looped and layered about each other. Loads of fun to listen to. Really similar to artists like Odesza, Giraffage, Star Slinger, Chrome Sparks, Flume.

No FCCs

*01. (3:11) Opens with some simple, clean piano, which then whirrs/morphs into a Nintendo-eqsue beep-boop melody with percussion-backed explosions. Cool use of different objects to keep the beat; ranges from hi-hats to bongos to a deep, hollow sounding “thunk”.
***02. (4:31) Disjointed “ahh”s and “eee”s looped across entire song; muffled down for the occasional subtle guitar break. Simultaneously dreamy and electrifying. One of my favorites from the album—should be be played loudly and often (whooo)
***03. (3:56) The entire song is building up on itself. Simple synth opens and grounds the track; various vocalizations float in (“oooh”s, “aaah”s, “I waited for you”), accompanied by backing electronic droning, heavy reverb filters and freestyling Nintendo-y noises. Fun to listen to—another favorite.
04. (4:05) Mysterious, spacey opening punctuated by the occasional reverberating synth note. About a minute and a half in, spacey drone explodes. Slowly paced and somewhat aimless for a bit; brought back to earth by abrupt piano solo before floating away again. More warped vocals (“hold still”)
05. (4:02) Repetitive, think “hyper video game”. Interesting groovy guitar/bass breaks. Heavy backing synth reminiscent of higher pitched Flume beats.
**06. (3:00) Softer track, driven forward by repeated “Let you go” vox and warped echoes. Really lazy piano comes into play in the latter half. Night drive feeling.
07. (3:16) Sleepier XXYYXX vibe. More spacey noise with floating bleeps and bloops. Nice touch with minimal backing guitar and ethereal vocalization.
***08. (3:12) Another excellent track—starts off empty, gets very busy and veeeery fun to listen to. Layers on layers of choppy, buzzy synth, hi-hat, deep booms, warped vocals (“on your side”), twinkling bells.
**09. (2:31) Heavy reverb + buzziness on synth; creates an alien-y sound atop really hectic hi-hat. Warped “ah”s and “oh”s sound like they’re coming from all different directions. Great song.
***10. (6:07) Copiously layered/chopped up female vocalizations, jumpy synth, dreamy background bells (?), heavy backing “thunk-thump”s, lots of really nice drops. Sounds so much like Flume; excellent electronic track.

Track Listing
1. Still Life   6. Let U Go
2. Girls   7. Manhattan
3. Waited 4 U   8. On Yr Side
4. Hold Still   9. Bear Dance
5. Youth Group   10. Closer