With help from St. Petersburg’s hip-hop crew The Baltic Clan, Smoky Mo realised his rap ambitions. Networking in the scene led to his first album Kara-Te in 2004 and its follow-up, Planet 46, in 2006. Taking influences from Fuze and Marat, Smoky Mo’s skills lie in his precision: every word has its place and every beat is fully realised. Some tracks evoke an ominous feeling dread amidst a pitch-perfect beat while others are spacey, unreal and oozing with sticky synths.