Slow or DJ Slow (born Vellu Maurola, 1975, in

Vantaa Vantaa (; , ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the north of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population of Vantaa is approximately . It is the most populous municipality in Finland. Vantaa is part of the Helsinki Metropoli ...

, Finland) is a Finnish DJ and

music producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

. Slow is known for his

nu-jazz Nu jazz (also spelt nü jazz or known as jazztronica, or future jazz) is a genre of jazz and electronic music. The music blends jazz elements with other musical styles, such as funk, electronic music, and free improvisation. Nu jazz typically ve ...

style and for his production of commercial music for high-profile advertising projects for TV and cinema.

Career

Inspiration from

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

acts such as

Run-DMC Run-DMC (also formatted Run-D.M.C., RUN DMC, or some combination thereof) was an American hip-hop group formed in Hollis, Queens, New York City in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the mos ...

Public Enemy Public Enemy is an American Hip-hop, hip hop group formed in Roosevelt, New York, in 1985 by Chuck D and Flavor Flav. The group rose to prominence for their political messages including subjects such as Racism in the United States, American r ...

and

Eric B & Rakim Eric B. & Rakim were an American hip hop duo formed on Long Island, New York, in 1986, composed of DJ Eric B. and rapper Rakim. They first received acclaim for their 1987 debut album '' Paid in Full'', which featured versions of the popular sin ...

, led Slow to begin a career in

DJing A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

, later making music and remixing other people's tracks. In 1990 Slow met fellow DJ JA-Jazz when they worked together in the music department of a department store. With money from his evening job, Slow bought a pair of Technics turntables and some records. He participated in the Finnish DMC Mixing Championships and won the contest four years in a row: in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995, using two

Technics SL-1200 The Technics SL-1200 is a series of direct-drive turntables introduced in October 1972 by Matsushita Electric (now Panasonic Corporation) under the brand name Technics. They are widely recognized as being major influences on the emergence of h ...

direct-drive turntable A direct-drive turntable is one of the three main phonograph designs currently being produced. The other styles are the belt-drive turntable and the idler-wheel type. Each name is based upon the type of coupling used between the platter of th ...

s and a

DJ mixer A DJ mixer is a type of audio mixing console used by disc jockeys (DJs) to control and manipulate multiple audio signals. Some DJs use the mixer to make seamless transitions from one song to another when they are playing records at a dance club. ...

, with musical styles ranging from

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

. In 1995 Ja-Jazz introduced Slow to James Spectrum, and the three of them formed a band called

Pepe Deluxé Pepe Deluxé is a Finnish electronic music-oriented band, formed in 1996 by DJ Slow (Vellu Maurola) JA-Jazz (Tomi Castrén, formerly Paajanen) and James Spectrum (Jari Salo) in Helsinki, Finland. They started to experiment with sounds of hip hop ...

, playing a mixture of

big beat Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as the ...

trip hop Trip hop is a musical genre that has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop and electronica with slow tempos and an atmospheric sound. The style emerged as a more experimental music, experimental var ...

, and

. The band's first release was a 1998 EP entitled ''Three Times a Player'', which was chosen as Record of the Month by ''

Muzik ''Muzik'' was a British dance music magazine published by IPC Media from June 1995 to August 2003. ''Muzik'' was created by two former ''Melody Maker'' journalists, Push and Ben Turner. Push was the editor of ''Muzik'' from its launch until he ...

'' magazine. Pepe Deluxé's first full-length album, ''Super Sound'', was released in 1999 by UK's

Catskills Records The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as ...

. Due to clearance problems with the samples, they had to produce a new version of the album with many of the tracks rerecorded with cleared samples or live instruments. The new version of the album was released in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

The Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. One track from the album, "

Woman in Blue The Portrait of a Lady in Blue, or Woman in Blue, is an oil-on-canvas portrait of an unknown woman, executed in the late 1770s or early 1780s by the English artist Thomas Gainsborough during his fifteen-year stay in Bath, Somerset. VV. AA. Mu ...

" (later renamed "Before You Leave"), was chosen to be used for a worldwide advertising campaign for

Levi's Levi Strauss & Co. ( ) is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's ( ) brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, ...

jeans in 2001. During this time Pepe Deluxe were also asked to do remixes for artists including

Tom Jones Tom Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer *Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist *''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in 1 ...

The Cardigans The Cardigans are a Swedish rock band formed in Jönköping, Sweden in 1992. The main lineup of the band consisted of guitarist Peter Svensson, bassist Magnus Sveningsson, drummer Bengt Lagerberg, keyboardist Lars-Olof Johansson and lead sing ...

, and

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, he is credited with popula ...

. After a lot of promotion and concerts around the world, Slow left the group to pursue solo projects. Between 1999 and 2001 he worked as Head of A&R at

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

Finland, launching a new dance label called Nozle, which released singles from dance acts such as Campaus, Z-MC, and

Jori Hulkkonen Jori Hulkkonen (born 28 September 1973), is a Finnish DJ and a producer of house music, originally from Kemi, Finland. Hulkkonen started his career in the early 1990s when he worked with Jukka Hautamäki, Tuomas Salmela and Ari Ruokamo for the ...

's Step Time Orchestra. Campaus was a dance act Slow started with a Finnish producer Rauli Eskolin. In 2002 Slow formed SlowHill with Finnish saxophonist Tapani Rinne of the band

RinneRadio RinneRadio is a Finnish group of electro jazz pioneers. Operating on the boundaries of jazz and electronic music, RinneRadio fused jazz into ambient music and techno years before it became a worldwide trend and added hints of world music into it ...

. Fusing jazz sounds with electronic beats, their first album ''Finndisc'' was released on

Blue Note Records Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by History of the Jews in Germany, German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it deriv ...

. In the same year, DJ Slow's single "Got to Funk" reached #1 in the Finnish dance chart, and peaked at #19 on the Finnish singles chart. The track was originally made for

Hartwall Hartwall Ltd is a beverage company based in Helsinki, Finland. It was founded in 1836. Its drinks range includes Jaffa (soft drink)#Hartwall Jaffa, Jaffa, Pommac and Novelle waters. The company also owns the licence for manufacturing and sellin ...

's Upcider drink commercial, but due to positive reception, was eventually released as a single. In 2003 Slow worked on various remixes such as The Crash's track "Star", and TV scores for Finnish television. In 2004 Slow released his debut album ''This Is Now'', and began broadcasting a weekly radio show, ''Burner'', on Helsinki's Groove FM with hip-hop artist Paleface. In 2005 SlowHill released their second album ''Fennika'' on Plastinka Records, and remixed BWO's "Sixteen Tons of Hardware". With Tapani Rinne, Slow also wrote the score for Finnish movie ''Koti-ikävä'', which was nominated for a

Jussi Award The Jussi Awards are Finland's premier film industry prizes, awarded annually to recognize the achievements of directors, actors, and writers. History The first Jussi Awards ceremony was held on 16 November 1944 at the Restaurant Adlon in Hel ...

. In 2006, Slow played a set at Midem International Music Market's 40th anniversary opening night in

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

. He also released his second album ''Pronto!'', and later that year the album was also released in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. He also played at ''

Wallpaper Wallpaper is used in interior decoration to cover the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" to help cover uneve ...

'' magazine's design awards in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, the

Artek Artek may refer to: *Arctic Technology Centre *Artek (camp), an international children center near Hurzuf, Crimea *Artek (company), a Finnish furniture manufacturer {{Disambiguation ...

pavilion at Milan's furniture fair, and the Klara Festival in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, and produced music for

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

IKEA IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services. IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...

, and

Finlandia Vodka Finlandia is a brand of vodka produced in Finland. It is made from barley distillation, distilled into a neutral spirit in the village of Koskenkorva in Ilmajoki by Finland's Altia Corporation. The distilled alcohol is then transported to a produ ...

among others. In 2010 SlowHill returned with their third album, ''Muzak''. Slow co-produced on "Brujería" on the album '' Aguilera'' by

Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera ( , ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and television personality. Recognized as Cultural impact of Christina Aguilera, an influential figure in music and having received Public imag ...

in 2022.

Discography

Albums

*2002 ''Finndisc'' (as SlowHill; Blue Note) *# "Slowjazz" *# "Super Blue" *# "Positive" *# "Fishbass Fusion" *# "Just A Phrase" *# "Valo" *# "Yesterday Star" *# "Small Stone" *# "Fragonardo" *# "Song For eetu" *2004 ''This Is Now'' (as DJ Slow; Tiger Helsinki/BMG) *# "These Jeans (R Way 2 Hotta!)" featuring L.A. Skin *# "Feel The Vibe" featuring

Jungle Brothers Jungle Brothers are an American hip hop trio composed of Michael Small (Mike Gee), Nathaniel Hall (Afrika Baby Bam) and Sammy Burwell (DJ Sammy B). Hailed as pioneers of the fusion of jazz, hip-hop, and house music, they were the first hip-hop g ...

*# "Got To Funk" *# "(I'm Over You) Pablo" featuring

Teemu Brunila Teemu William Brunila (born 24 November 1976, in Turku) is a Finnish singer, songwriter, musician and producer. Brunila became known as the lead vocalist and songwriter for the pop group The Crash. During their career, the band released four stud ...

*# "Sunshine" featuring

Max C Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE) * Max (gorilla) ( ...

*# "Top-20 People" featuring L.A. Skin *# "Start To Pray" *# "Get Down, Give It Up" featuring L.A. Skin and Élancy *# "Keep Moving" featuring

Midnight Sun Midnight sun, also known as polar day, is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When midnight sun is see ...

*# "This Is Now" featuring L.A. Skin and Christa Renwall *2005 ''Fennika'' (as SlowHill; Plastinka Records) *# "Come Back As A Butterfly" *# "Fundador" *# "Riekko" *# "Everyone Is A Star" *# "La Noche En La Isla" *# "Ammulla/Illalla" *# "Thursday" *# "Fennika" *# "Lost Friends" *# "Niko's Dream" *2006 ''Pronto!'' (as Slow; Plastinka Records) *# "Suite No. 431" *# "Little By Little" *# "Back In L.A." *# "Sambesque Tin-Tin" *# "Track Down Pronto!" *# "Fall Upon Love" *# "Again And Again" *# "Carnivále Mystique" *# "Lullaby At 8:45pm" *2010 ''Muzak'' (as SlowHill; Universal Music) *# "Tenho" *# "Parasol" *# "Finnlite" *# "Pohjalo" *# "Shine" *# "Le Vapour" *# "Toiset Meistä" *# "Saunatheque" *# "Utu" *# "Sshhh"

Singles

*2001 : SlowHill : "Super Blue" (Blue Note) *2003 : Paleface with DJ Slow : "Wannabe MC" (BMG) *2003 : Paleface with DJ Slow : "Til The Break Of Dawn" (BMG) *2003 : DJ Slow : "Got To Funk" (Tiger Helsinki/BMG) *2004 : DJ Slow : "These Jeans (R Way 2 Hotta!)" (Tiger Helsinki/BMG) *2004 : DJ Slow : "Keep Moving" (Tiger Helsinki/BMG) *2004 : DJ Slow : "(I'm Over You) Pablo" (Tiger Helsinki/BMG)

Compilations

*2005 ''Various Artists Eat&Joy vol.1'', mixed and compiled by DJ Slow (Plastinka Records) *# SlowHill : "La Noche En La Isla" *#

Husky Rescue Husky Rescue is a Finnish electronic music band from Helsinki, formed in 2002. The group consists of Marko Nyberg, Johanna Kalén, and Antony Bentley. History 2002–2010 Husky Rescue was formed by Marko Nyberg, who began composing under the n ...

: "Rainbow Flows" *# ToneKroup : "Mood Division" *# Lightman : "Oil On Canvas" *# ACCU : "Out Of the Blue" *# Teddy Rok Seven : "Feel" (featuring Okou) 4:36 *# Korpi Ensemble : "Everything’s All Right" *# Infekto : "Beautiful" (Instrumental) *# Ro*danmaa : "Track 7" *# Quintessence : "Friday" *# Jazzgangsters : "Feeling Sad Tonight" *# Uusi Fantasia : "Fantasia"

References

External links

Slow.fi
– official website
Slow
at

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

Slow
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

''Slowhill'' album review on Suomijazz page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slow 1975 births Living people Club DJs Finnish electronic musicians Nu jazz musicians Remixers