About

"As Super Magic Hats, Melbourne’s Rob Masterton has begun to explore a Caribou-like territory of gleefully catchy melodies and psychedelic wooziness in his productions. The approachability and orderliness of Masterton’s one-syllable samples lends a pop sensibility and stuttering summertime energy to his work, which has earned him airtime on BBC 6 and a featured spot for "Happy Jazz" on Bleep’s unsigned track compilation, Filtered." - XLR8R (USA)

"One of the brightest new electronic acts out of Melbourne" - East to West Blog (Aus)

"Vibrant and energetic electronics are draped over skillfully chopped vocal samples which swiftly carry the track into a blissful momentum. It’s too good to be only enjoyed once." - Hearing Gold (Can), on “Because of You”

Super Magic Hats is a Melbourne-based musician, beatmaker and producer whose work embraces melody, noise and experimentation. Half-heard/half-imagined vocals sit alongside vintage drum machines, soaring analogue synth lines mix with surf guitar, crisp production punches through recordings of rainy walks through the park. As an accomplished guitarist and bass player, live instrumentation makes its way into many Super Magic Hats tracks, while a love of the unusual leads to electronic gadgets such as Yamaha’s Tenori-On and Critter and Guitari’s Pocket Piano featuring prominently. Super Magic Hats also loves experimenting with a wide range of samples, including chopped up vocals, field recordings of streetscapes and everything in between. This sound is underpinned by interest in production trickery and effects, which washes intricate edits, delicately placed details and other sonic mutations with layers of reverb and delay.

Super Magic Hats emerged on the Melbourne scene in mid-2011, when tracks Happy Jazz and Hangin’ were picked up by blogs and radio and received airplay on Triple J and Triple R. Out of 4,000 entries, Happy Jazz was selected by Bleep.com as a winner of their Filtered competition for unsigned tracks, achieving more blog love and play on BBC Radio 6 along the way. Further writes-ups have been forthcoming for Charcoal, a moodier track that premiered on XLR8R and caught the attention of radio and blogs around the world, and Because of You, a track that was posted on Triple J’s Unearthed website and has since been given extensive airplay from lunchtime host Lewi McKirdy and champion of Australian music Dom Alessio.

Making a live debut at Revolver in September 2011, Super Magic Hats has gone on to play many of Melbourne’s legendary venues, as well as venturing interstate. Playing with a wide variety of acts, the Super Magic Hats sound has won over listeners at every opportunity. His live set has developed into something both polished and chaotic, as improvised structures and live instrumentation bring tracks to life. Recent gigs include playing to a sold-out Northcote Social Club supporting Sydney indie-electro act Rufus.

Super Magic Hats’ first EP was released in March 2013 supported by an East Coast tour.  He is currently producing new tracks for the second, as well as working on a string of remixes.

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