Young Smoke, a barely-legal footwork producer in DJ Diamond’s Flight Muzik crew, was relatively silent in late 2011/early 2012, but he’s back in full force now. In late April, Young Smoke announced a whole slew of new releases (including a 10-minute preview of one of his upcoming summer albums, Astronaut Status 1.0), and just a couple weeks ago, he released a free EP called Smoke Session v.1 for those who were fast enough to pick it up. And just over the weekend, Young Smoke took to Soundcloud to post a bunch of tracks from his upcoming releases, such as “War Flutes” (from Gutta House Muzik v.2), “Floating Star” and “Fly Away” (from Astronaut Status 1.0), “Flight Lyfe In Yo Mouth” (from Flight Society v.1 with DJ Diamond and DJ Metro), a couple tracks that don’t seem to have homes yet (“Dream Land” and “Ocean Waves”), and the track below, “Warning,” which is off his upcoming Planet Mu full-length.
Unsurprisingly, “Warning” is the strongest of the bunch, which perhaps speaks in part to how much care Planet Mu continually exhibits in their curating skills (I’ve heard so many incredibly SHITTY footwork tracks now that I really appreciate Planet Mu’s ear, whether or not the releases “accurately” represent Chicago footwork). Listening to these tracks together, it’s clear that, while Young Smoke is still experimenting to figure out which approaches work and which don’t, he’s put considerable forethought into his weird space aesthetic and easily possesses the most clearly defined methodology of all the up-and-coming footworker producers.
Get your space suit on, and look for his Planet Mu release, called either Space Zone or The Space Cadet, in September.
• Young Smoke: http://soundcloud.com/flightmuzik-1
• Flight Muzik: http://flightmuzik.blogspot.com
• Planet Mu: http://www.planet.mu
