Covering Tracks: Zemi17

Covering Tracks is a regular series in which we ask our favorite producers and DJs to recommend ten new (and not so new) releases. This week’s selection comes courtesy of Zemi17, an alias of Aaron Taylor Kuffner, a Brooklyn-based electronic musician and the mastermind of a robotic Gamelan orchestra. His first official solo release, the Impressions EP, arrives right about now via Bryan Kasenic’s always-exciting label The Bunker NY.  

These submissions came with a short note from Kuffner, which reads as follows:

“I like tracks that are somewhat timeless and you can’t tell when they were made, or by whom – what matters is that I am loving them now.  So my list is more of an emotional list and less something I would ever DJ.”

Shlohmo – “Sink” [Friends of Friends]

This track exists in its own planet. It makes a foundation that it can live and grow on first, like fertile soil, before it blooms a flower made of odd colors and set on a drab moon.

Petar Dundov – “Oasis” [Music Man]

This track never quits—it keeps rolling up and up and up, so slowly. I would mix it into my sets, fudge with the EQ ever-so-subtly, and just let it grow.

Matthew Herbert — “Mistakes” (Housey Housey Version) [Tresor]

Track starts at 34:45
I think I had this record in ‘99 or 2000. I love how it’s such a genre-bender of a track, made way before all the techno shuffle and swing house stuff. I listen to it and desperately look for places to drop this track, just to see how it forces people’s body to dance differently.

Fusiphorm — “Green Chocolate” (Koljah’s Exploding Cake Remix) [Minimood]

This track is just crazy—almost annoyingly so. It’s like a synchronized skee-ball set to undulating fuzz.

Blue Hawaii — “Follow” [Arbutus]

As for something a little electronic pop-y, I love Blue Hawaii and its related project, Braids. “Follow” is exactly that: a track you just follow. It never comes back on itself in a verse/chorus kind of way, it just evolves musically like following a story.

Future Islands — “Vireo’s Eye” [Thrill Jockey]

Yes, this band has become wildly hip over the last couple months, and their new album is pretty good. About five years ago, they had a harder edge, new wave-y album, and this is the song that always gets up my spin.

Beach Fossils — “Clash the Truth” [Captured Tracks]

I don’t even know exactly what it is about this song, but I jump up and dance like no one is looking for two minutes, and then done.

Mulatu Astatke — “Yekermo Sew” [Amha]

This obviously is not new at all, but it is hard to tell what era it is from. I love Mulatu Astatke; he took all these great musical traditions, from salsa, jazz, psychedelic rock, funk, and beyond, and rolled them into something that is undeniably Ethiopian. What the hell—I never know what to expect from his songs. They often sound like three different things, but not all at the same time.

Jon Hopkins — “Immunity” [Domino]

It’s simply beautiful, like laying beneath a glass plate watching rain drops fall. This song is like free-basing empathy. It makes me recall memories that I might not have had.

The Hot 8 Brass Band — “Sexual Healing” [Tru Thoughts]

Just because this song is so much fun, it has to make you happy. ~

For more editions of Covering Tracks, head here.

Published August 29, 2014. Words by EB Team.