Ariel Zetina Embraces Sonic Surprises That Sound Like a "Futuristic Prayer"

The best thing about Ariel Zetina is her restlessness. The DJ, producer and nightlife favorite maintains a hyperactive schedule that keeps her bouncing from one singular gig to the next. "I think for me it's really about trying to find a connection between all the different projects I'm working on," Zetina said. "Different productions and mixes can inform the sounds of other ones."

She currently spins and curates the Cubic Zirconia club night at famed nightlife institution Smart Bar and Rosebud at Chicago's Berlin nightclub. You can also find her regularly at Rumors, a party that takes place at Exit in Chicago, as the resident DJ. "I think trying to curate everything and all work toward one goal makes me fine-tune the sounds of my different parties," she said. "My parties are not the same, but they have a unifying theme of being very clubby and very hard."

When she's not spinning, she's producing glitchy, fun and abrasive house and techno tracks that demand bodies move to the dance floor. Most recently, she produced Witch Hazel's 2015 EP Godzilla and tracks for Bon Bon. There is an eagerness and a cleverness to her music. Even when working with different artists, Zetina's personal touch shines through on the record. "There is a shared language with my collaborators, whether it's people I'm bringing in or people I'm producing for," she said.

For the latest edition of The Last Record, Zetina selected a unique blend of murky dance tracks and one track she deemed a "futuristic prayer."

Sha Sha Kimbo has released some amazing bass heavy tracks recently. Her addition to the Boukan Records compilation goes even further for me mostly because of the steady kick, a rare addition to percussive club tracks like this. Boukan Records' compilations (this is the third one) contain so many tracks that I keep returning to in my DJ sets. I love all of their tracks that are this crazy, but still anchored by a four-on-the-floor kick.

I heard the original of this track recently in a daytime outdoor set by Olin and fell in love with that version. The slow rhythm with the vocal is so infectious. But this is the version I downloaded. The panning vocal at the start and the hard beat could make a good track if they were the only two elements, but the singing that comes in off-beat at 3:25 sounds like PC Music and is what makes this a great track. I'm obsessed with anything that trusts rhythm and then decides to break it up right in the middle.

The first time I heard Embaci's voice over The Dedekind Cut's gorgeous synths on "Girl In A Rut" I knew that she wasn't fucking around. The quality of her voice brings tears to my eyes. The whole NON V N.A.A.F.I. EP is near perfect, but this Lechuga Zafiro remix caught me by splicing up wordless vocals sounds like some futuristic prayer. You think the whole track will be organic and made up of only vocals, then that bizarre sound at around one minute in happens and completely changes the quality of the piece. I'm dying to hear it in real life.