Animix Fifty One: Zara [Interview]
First-rate, up-and-coming DJ and producer Zara features as mix fifty one on Naarm-based Animalia mix series. Zara takes listeners on a fantastical journey—this is lush drum and bass at its finest.
If you spend anytime going through Zara’s Soundcloud you will come to appreciate what a versatile DJ she is. Zara explained to me that what she plays and enjoys listening to is very dependent on the weather and the season—dark, heavy, reverby songs in winter and more floaty, euphoric, ambient music throughout summer. Chances are if Kia had asked Zara for a mix at any other time in the year, we would have ended up with something completely different. Talking with Zara I was struck by her considerate attitude not only towards her mixing but her listener’s experience as well.
Full Track list with Bandcamp links down below.
Zara says her mix works in a V-shape, whereby it starts somewhere ambient, dips into something heavy and gradually floats back up towards something ambient—perhaps like moving through the seasons from January to December.
“I love mixes that take listeners on surprising and unexpected journeys. Ordinally when someone is listening to a mix they are sitting down at a desk working or studying, so to immediately hit them with heavy drum and bass or techno can be a bit abrasive. I enjoy the process of easing people into the mix, beginning with smoother ambient textures then moving onto heavier, bass-driven tracks and ending with euphoric music. I think of finishing a mix in this way as it being like leaving a sweet taste in someone’s mouth—a dessert.”
Were this mix to compliment an imaginary visual narrative, for me, it would begin with a group of hikers walking through the Himalayas on a pristine winter’s morning. ‘Links Inna Chain’ by Caro is introduced and we can image that the clinks and clanks are being caused by water bottles dangling from carabiners, rapping gently against one another. The meandering quality of the music sets the pace and rhythm for the assent up the mountain. The hikers hear the faint sound of singing bowls echoing through the valley and prayer flags fluttering in the breeze.
The pronounced journey element of this mix undoubtedly stems from Zara’s capacity to mix across a number of different genres—she says, ‘of course my music taste is always changing, reflective of different periods of my life. I’ve never been one to confine myself to one genre or BPM during sets or mixes. I adore such a wide variety of music and my listening habits change so often. I’m a huge believer in the idea that there is good music in every genre you just have to find it’. Accordingly, the mix pivots towards more minimal drum and bass and echoey, cavernous acoustics. It seems only fitting here that ‘Unhide’ by Lcp should mark the discovery of a cave opening—from where, the hikers plunge into the darkness and begin exploring an intricate network of tunnels.
By the time the mix reaches ‘Curiosity’ by Genotype & Just Jungle the hikers are well and truly lost, they stumble into a huge champers littered with an impressive array of steely, crystal stalactites and stalagmites—I imagine the Half-Blood Prince cave that houses Salazar Slytherin’s (fake) locket. Resident Advisor writer Andrew Ryce describes Justin Richardson’s (Genotype) music as ‘reduced to almost nothing but trebly clicks and seismic rumblings’—this section of the mix represents the vertex of the ‘V’, and the lowest point of altitude for the hikers.
This underground section also to me greatly encapsulates Zara’s current interest and enthusiasm around drum and bass. ‘I have developed a recent obsession with modern ‘lush’ drum and bass’, she says, ‘those tracks that sit around the 170/85BPM zone but aren’t necessarily a ‘classic’ drum and bass song. I suppose the catalyst was when I first listened to Third Space’s ‘Pattern of Spring’ on Pure Space on wax and was in awe. The dripping sound design and psychedelic elements truly do get better with every listen. Another favourite from this year is DBR’s ‘Transient Attention Complex’ on Steeplejack—capable of simultaneously creating a mind-altering experience both at home and on the dancefloor.’
Nearing the end, the hikers awake from their trance and rally to find a way back to the surface. As ‘Ernest Hemingway’ by Cuelock plays, the hikers emerge onto a ledge that looks over a Shangri La-like utopia. A golden river snakes under canopies of prehistoric foliage. The air is warm, colourful birds fly overhead, and sweet, delicious fruit hangs from every tree—echoing Zara’s sentiment: ‘like leaving a sweet taste in someone’s mouth.
There is lots to be excited about if you are a fan of Zara’s work—coming off the back of the beautiful PHENOMENAL Vol. 1 track ‘A Walk To IGA’, she also has a track on the forthcoming Pure Space release, PROXIMITY II and an EP release scheduled for some time early next year. More still, she is moving from Canberra, and it will not be long before we are listening to her mixes in person here in Melbourne.
When considering the last few years, this mix could also represent the long lockdowns we have all endured. As the mix drifts back towards Zara’s warm weather music taste, it reminds us that though Naarm spring is a little behind schedule this year, the promise of consistent warmer weather is something we can all find solace in. Persephone is back in Demeter’s arms. Or, put another way, as the Deathly Hallows concludes, ‘All is well’.
Tracklist:
Kali Drips — Tau Contrib
https://sferic.bandcamp.com/track/kali-drips
Dregs — Barefoot
https://literaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/dregs
Links Inna Chain — Caro
https://limbotapes.bandcamp.com/track/links-inna-chain
Magnetar — Ghost Warrior
https://ghostwarrior.bandcamp.com/track/magnetar
Feandra — Sangeet & Thia
https://ghosttownsoundmuc.bandcamp.com/track/feandra
u+00b1 — Space Afrika
https://sferic.bandcamp.com/track/u-00b1
Unhide — Lcp
https://literaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/track/unhide
4rion — Medika
https://conspiredwithin.bandcamp.com/track/4rion
Procession — Elsewhere
https://microfunk.bandcamp.com/track/procession
Shifting Zone featuring Clearlight — Owl
https://relationreset.com/track/shifting-zone-featuring-clearlight
Cosine — Books
https://relationreset.com/track/cosine
Prism — Sotus
https://relationreset.com/track/prism
Kotor — Flatliner
https://repertoire.bandcamp.com/track/kotor
ECOU #11 — Dyl + DB1
https://relationreset.com/album/ecou
Throb — Abstract Elements
https://microfunk.bandcamp.com/track/throb
Curiosity — Genotype & Just Jungle
https://genotypejjungle.bandcamp.com/track/curiosity
Switch Node — Hathor
https://literaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/wind-speaks
Scavengers VIP — The Untouchables
https://theuntouchables.bandcamp.com/track/scavengers-vip
The Centipede — Shiken Hanzo
https://shikenhanzo.bandcamp.com/track/the-centipede
Early Exposure To Television — DBR
https://dbr00.bandcamp.com/album/transient-attention-complex
Cryptid — Clarity
https://claritymusik.bandcamp.com/track/cryptid
Xerxes — Cuelock
https://literaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/untitled-cuelock
Whole Tone — Cooh
https://positionchrome.bandcamp.com/album/transcension-pc098
Annoko — Forest Drive West
https://ruptureldn.bandcamp.com/track/annoko
The One — Shiken Hanzo
https://shikenhanzo.bandcamp.com/track/the-one
In Breaks We Trust — Effra
https://ruptureldn.bandcamp.com/track/effra-in-breaks-we-trust
Malformation — Clarity
https://claritymusik.bandcamp.com/track/malformation
J. Robinson – Congoman
https://ruptureldn.bandcamp.com/track/j-robinson-congoman
Baiana — The Untouchables
https://ruptureldn.bandcamp.com/track/the-untouchables-baiana
Zara — A Walk To IGA
https://phenomena.bandcamp.com/album/phenomenal-vol-1
Ernest Hemingway — Cuelock
https://literaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/track/ernest-hemingway
Last Summer — Paracusia
https://paradiselostrecordings.bandcamp.com/track/last-summer
Khali — Enayet
https://enayet.bandcamp.com/releases
Words by Jack Long (@patrick.di_henning)
Photos by Felicity Kelly and Cheyenne Bardos (@cheyennebardos)
Artwork by Animalia (@animalialabel)
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