Slow Magic & artermis orion - Half Alive

Slow Magic makes music that always sounds like it’s being played in a field at dusk with the last light going, and Half Alive is no exception. The masked producer has spent years in this lane, building tracks out of organic-sounding percussion and melodies that feel handmade rather than programmed, and the collaboration with artermis orion adds a vocal that floats rather than announces itself. This is the gentle end of electronic music, the stuff that works as well on a long drive as it does at the chilled-out edge of a festival. There’s a drum pattern that comes in around 1:30 that sounds like it’s played on actual objects rather than a drum machine, and that tactile quality is Slow Magic’s whole signature. I put it on expecting background music and found myself actually paying attention by the second minute, which is the highest compliment I can pay something this pretty. It never raises its voice and never needs to. Some music is for the mosh pit and some is for the comedown, and this is firmly, beautifully the latter.

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