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She is definitely making music that is hard to define, sometimes more future soul, sometimes abstract... Confusing? No… she just makes dope music.” says Lexis, Montreal based DJ and musicismysanctuary.com founder. |
Based in Toronto, Canada, originally from the Washington, DC area, Pursuit Grooves (Vanese Smith) started producing music as a teenager to accompany the lyrics she was writing. She has been obsessed with sound ever since.
She makes music that is sonically adventurous, oscillating between moments of jittery tension and silky release, producing chopped-up basslines, woozy cinematic melodies and improvisatory funk in order to create a beautiful balance of light and dark, fragility and toughness, seamlessly blending deep machine soul, dismantled hip-hop instrumentals and heavy hitting, genre-bending dub. |
Production/Live/DJ
Pursuit Grooves started turning heads and pulsating ears when she was featured on Rush Hour's Beat Dimensions compilation. The following year she earned a spot at the prestigious Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona. Soon after she released the "Fox Trot Mannerisms" EP and "Frantically Hopeful" full-length on UK label Tectonic Recordings, all highlighting her knack for delivering varying tempos, warm melodies, and equally awesome abilities to sing, rap and produce. She has been featured on Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Bubblers compilation series and albums for Swede:art and Portformat on Tokyo Dawn Records. PG has produced numerous remixes including for award winning Argentinian pop/electronic band Altocamet, Planningtorock and Swedish duo The Knife. She released a "cinematic dub" project on the California based Deepblak Recordings label under the alias 91 Fellows which is a tribute to her grandfather who passed away the previous year. She released a string of EPS and full-lengths on her own label What Rules including releases Broadcasting A Sensory Sequence, Modern Day Minerals, Mythico, Felt Armour, Bess, Mo:delic Island, and 100 Seams. Pursuit Grooves also co-founded and co-runs the music organization Loop Sessions Toronto since 2019, focused on production, sample culture, and education.
Over the years she has DJed and performed live with her trusty hardware sampler internationally including sets at Boiler Room, Inner Varnika (Australia), MUTEK Montreal, Sonar Festival (Spain), Elevate Festival (Austria) and Movement Electronic Music Festival (Detroit) to name a few. Smith has a BA degree in film from Vassar College and creates abstract video art and graphic design as Mo:delicarts which often accompany her performance. PG also served as DJ consultant and instructor for the Disney film Spin. PRESS
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