Dancefloor Oracle Zora Jones Breaks Down 11 Perfectly Produced Tracks

The Producers is an interview series where our favorite artists discuss their favorite music production.

For nearly 15 years, Zora Jones has been zapping the global dance scene with her super-shiny, super-gloopy sound. Think zero-gravity synths. Think adrenaline-spiking melodies that also happen to be preternaturally beautiful. Think beats that sound like the club refracted in one of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms. She’s constantly pushing the boundaries of what a producer can do, and upping the bar for how to think about futurism in club music.

But in the years since her 2020 debut album, Ten Billion Angels, Jones has been relatively quiet, dropping only a few, predictably excellent loosies, including the taffy-like “Miau,” with the outré musician and performance artist Golin. During that low-profile time, Jones tells me over video chat, she was recalibrating both her life—moving from Montreal back to Barcelona, where she attended college—and her songwriting, on a mission to improve and expand her work. She’s been developing her skills as a vocalist (“It’s the hardest instrument I’ve had to learn”) and taking piano lessons from the Catalan experimental musician Marina Herlop, Jones’ roommate when she first moved back to Barcelona. Last month, Jones returned with the brain-breaking Angel Crisis EP, six nimble club joints that could double as Venusian pop songs, and moved her music to her own new imprint, Bellyfat.

Angel Crisis also alludes to what her forthcoming album will sound like—the quavering song “Make Up Bag Part 1” will have a sequel, for instance—but the LP will have more of a vocal focus. “With songwriting, I don’t like being comfortable with the tools I have, and I always try to learn new things,” Jones says. “I approach production similarly. I don’t like to be comfortable when I’m producing, because a lot of the best ideas come from surprises or ‘mistakes.’ I like to keep approaching every song with a sense of curiosity and novelty. I try to really outdo myself every time.”

After Jones and I chat, she’s planning to spend a day recording with a previous collaborator, the Spanish rapper La Zowi. It’s a session inspired by her adopted country’s thriving music scene, which has been invigorating for Jones over the last few years. “It feels like a very active moment, but also very innocent in a way. There are so many unbelievably talented artists doing things here right now, and they’re all open and approachable,” Jones explains. “It doesn’t have this cutthroat feeling that the North American industry has. It has a very communal and collaborative feeling to it. I’ve been the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. Barcelona feels like home for me.”

Here are 11 songs Jones considers perfectly produced, ranging from glitchy flamenco to a tittering grime classic to the track that blew up bassline, the Sheffield dance genre, in the late 2000s.

Ralphie Choo and Drummie: “Tangos Angos de Una Moto Trucada” (2023)

Zora Jones: Ralphie Choo and Che Ecru are my two number-ones—yes, I have two. Sue me. I love this track because it has a billion ideas on it without feeling overwhelming, and each element has its space and is understandable, and that’s very hard to do. The drums are rhythmically complex without losing drive, and the vocal has a pop quality to it that gets stuck in your head, without falling into the conventional. Ralphie is a melodic genius. The drop gives me stankface—in admiration, obviously. Also, can we talk about the piano/flute outro? Shout out to Drummie. I could write a thesis about this song if I had the time.

Israel Fernández and Diego del Morao: “La Inocencia” (ft. El Guincho) (2021)

Super, super powerful track. I love how this song plays with space and structure, sounding so well-balanced but without losing the rawness of the vocal performance. It’s super hard to incorporate these ideas in flamenco without disrespecting the genre, and they pulled it off very elegantly. The string arrangements give me goosebumps every time. El Guincho is probably one of the best producers of our generation.

Marina Herlop: “La Alhambra” (2023)

When you are in a room with Marina when she makes music, you feel a presence that is not from this earth. I wish I could include a song from her new album because she’s taking a massive leap in production and composition, but “La Alhambra” is still one of my favorite songs of hers.

Marina is not afraid of space: On this track, she keeps playing with building tension and then suddenly drops into just one element or a vocal harmony, which takes balls of steel. Her harmonies and drum programming are on my “to study” list. I have to actually sit down one day and try to replicate her vocal harmonies to understand what she's doing. Marina is hands down one of the best musicians and producers of all time. She always says she doesn’t know about music, which is why I know she knows about music, because the most advanced people are always like, “I don’t know anything.” She’s actually a genius. And I loved living with her—she’s such a funny person, I peed myself out of laughter.

Scratch DVA and Orion Sun: “Do Ur Best” (2020)

Scratcha was the first person to invite me to come to a radio show without me even having released anything—14 years ago, maybe longer, before my first EP. That meant a lot to me coming from a legend like him, because he has such a massive catalog, and I think he’s very underrated in that regard. He was such a key player in R&G [rhythm & grime], which is one of my favorite genres.

I love his club music production, but this is a track I come back to because he’s so good at working with vocalists, which as a producer is so important. He gets my favorite vocal performance out of each artist every time, and despite him having shared his secrets with me, I still can’t do it the same way as him. It’s also about his character and how comfortable he makes people feel in the studio. That’s a big thing that I think about when I work with vocalists.

He’s also such an alien in a sense that he’ll suddenly use a strange bird sound as percussion, which is one of my favorite things about “Do Ur Best.” The chords are so simple, it’s not trying too hard. The instrumental serves the vocal and the vocal elevates the instrumental. He’s absolutely brilliant.

Che Ecru: “Ufo’s” (2025)

It was hard to choose only one of his songs because I really love 99 percent of his catalog—which is a big statement coming from me, because I’m a picky bitch. I love how this one gets straight to the point from the first second, no foreplay. The way the percussion follows the hook, or vice-versa, is so hypnotic. The melodies and songwriting are fairly classic R&B, but the production and structure is contemporary without being overly complex and pretentious.

Missy Elliott: “Work It” (2002)

Missy Elliott and Timbaland are some of the most important producers of all time. They changed culture and how rap sounds with their production, which only a handful of people achieve. “Work It” is such a simple but freaky track. It was released in 2002 but could be released today and would still sound fresh, it’s timeless. The instrumental is skeletal but hits so hard; I think a lot of the sounds are Timbaland doing weird sounds with his mouth. The intro is iconic. It’s one of the songs I was obsessed with watching on MTV.

Beyoncé: “Crazy in Love” (ft. Jay-Z) (2003)

I remember being obsessed with watching this video when I was a young teenager, trying to replicate her dance moves but totally failing. Everything about this song is excellent. The structure is genius: I love how it starts with the most powerful and intense part of the song, which are the horns—I still don’t know how they were mixed, I’ve been trying to figure that out for a decade—but then briefly drops into drums and vocal, then drops into horns again, then drums with verse, then horns with hook, and so forth. Constant suspense and release. This is my fave Beyoncé solo era.

Ruff Sqwad: “Together” (2005)

Ruff Sqwad’s White Label Classics is absolutely essential to me, and “Together” is one of my favorite songs of all time. Every sound and melody is perfect. The arrangement is perfect. The pitched vocal gets stuck in your head, and the square bass chops your head right off when it comes in. The zaps are so alien and weird, but absolutely necessary. It’s one of those songs that I blast on my Bluetooth speaker while biking, which makes me go dangerously fast.

T2: “Heartbroken” (ft. Jodie Ayesha) (2007)

This is a very important track for me in terms of production. The vocal is recorded in a lower key and then pitched up to match the key of the instrumental, I think, which makes the vocal sound slightly surreal, dancing on the uncanny valley of sound. I do the same thing a lot on my own songs because of it. Then the vocal chops, the bassline, the energy of the song, the arrangement. It’s a timeless masterpiece.

Conducta: “Needed U” (2024)

It was very hard to choose between “Needed U” and “Vitamin C” because I love both of those songs. It's one of those tracks you wish you’d produced. “Needed U” is so beautiful because it’s not overwhelming in terms of ideas, super catchy but minimal, mixed so well, and is elegant but keeps it funky. Also, I love piano on a dance-music track. Conducta is a great DJ but even better producer.

Kelela: “Rewind” (2015)

This is producer Kingdom’s pop sensibility and club music background, meets Kelela, meets Miami, which is such a powerful combo. It’s so good in terms of melody, pacing, energy, sound. It can live in the club but it can also live in your bedroom. I’ve probably listened to this song 500 times.

What are the qualities in music that put you over the edge from “I like this” to “This is one of my favorite songs ever”?

I like being surprised, and the more you listen to and learn about music, the less you get surprised. So I love songs that, if I sit down and really focus on them, there’s always some element I haven’t heard before. It’s not a snobby thing, it’s just that your taste gets more narrow, and I think that’s fine. The more you understand about production, the smaller your taste gets. You don’t have to like everything.