Flight Muzik cadet Young Smoke is primed to become one of footwork’s more recognisable young talents.

2010’s The Track Lab Vol. 1 tape tipped us off to the teenager’s unusually prickly, pointillist take on the Chicago sound. Still only 18, he’s since made it onto the second volume of Planet Mu’s trendsetting Bangs & Works series, and, more pertinently, secured a full-length album deal with Mike Paradinas’ label.

With the Space Zone LP set to drop later this month, FACT have an exclusive download of non-album track ‘High Lyfe’. It’s an airy, gentle, oddly serene number; those chattering footwork polyrhythms are there, but they’re much less forceful than, say, your next DJ Rashad or RP Boo record. It sounds nothing like highlife, of course, but the track definitely shares some of that genre’s cheery optimism. There’s even a touch of ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ about proceedings – a quirk that speaks volumes about Young Smoke’s singular approach.

Space Zone is due on Planet Mu on September 24.