Vanese Smith is neither a hip-hop ‘beatmaker’ nor a certified ‘dance producer’: her music occupies a liminal space between the two.

Her still-classic Fox Trot Mannerisms EP and 2011’s Frantically Hopeful might have come out on Tectonic, but her way with a sampler gestured as readily towards the block as it did towards the dancefloor. Smith’s tracks tend to exemplify that old ‘more than the sum of its parts’ adage. Discrete elements are layered in ways that might initially appear clunky, but the awkward fissures in her music quickly become compelling with repeated listens. ‘Shuttle Rockets’, posted up today on her Bandcamp page, is another top-notch example of her methodology in action.

‘Shuttle Rockets’ displays the same stop-start quality of much of Smith’s best work, not to mention those coruscating sheets of synth. It is, however, much softer than anything on the jerky Frantically Hopeful. There’s an organic quality to the percussion that sets it apart from her more mechanical works, and Smith peppers the piece with shards of broken voices.

You can listen to, and subsequently grab, ‘Shuttle Rockets’ below.

Joseph Morpurgo