
When I first popped open the e-mail sent by the enigmatic artist known as Slow Magic, I didn’t know what to expect. With an album title like ▲, one can’t help but think this is another B-rated witch house album that the internet seems to churn out on an hourly basis. However, the multilingual description (ranging from Icelandic to Japanese) of:
Slow magic is the sound made by an unknown imaginary friend.
遅い魔法は未知の想像上の友人が作った音です。
Slow galdur er hljóðið gert með því að óþekkt ímyndaða vini.
La magie lente est le bruit fait par un ami inconnu imaginaire.
made me think that this was some sort of an offshoot of a Sincerely Yours artist. However, all is settled when you finally get around to pressing play and slipping into that chillwave-tinged dream-pop trance.
With the likes of acts such as Weeknd and Cults seemingly coming out of nowhere to land on the big stage in a matter of nanoseconds, it’s becoming less and less surprising to be hit with an out-of-left-field e-mail from someone who has producing a high quality, exceptional album. Certainly Slow Magic falls in this category, and the three track geometric-titled EP is ready-made to be slapped on some wax tomorrow and sold through a worldwide distro by Tuesday.
The opener, and arguably the best of the trio of tracks, “Corvette Cassette” makes good use of the light, off-beat arpeggios to lift you up off the couch and float you in the clouds. The distorted vocal sample — which I can’t quite make out the language/lyrics — does a good job of keeping you suspended while the dueling keyboard lines at the two-minute mark push you past the atmosphere and into interstellar space. It’s pretty much everything you could ask for from a quote-unquote chillwave track: breezy, delicate, and surprisingly complex yet easy to listen to. Check out the song below:
Slow Magic // Corvette Cassette