06 December 2024 - 0 Comments

Mokotron is a Tāmaki-based Māori producer from Ngāti Hine, who spreads seismic waves of low frequency Indigenous electronic music. Exploring ancient futurism through music, Mokotron imagines a reality without colonisation, where the ancestors transition from the ancient world into the modern, creating futures of hope juxtaposed with the hard realities of urban disconnection.

2022 was a breakout year for Mokotron releasing three 12” EPs on Spanish label Electro Records, as well as featuring on digital compilations assembled by Crazed Behaviour (UK), Ovelha Tracks (Portugal) and Strange Behaviour (Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington). Their independently released EP Tawhito was awarded Te Tohu Hopunga Puoro Mariu (Favourite EP / Mixtape) at the 2022 Student Radio Network Awards. Earlier this year Mokotron released The United Tribes of Bass, a landmark remix project, exclusively featuring Māori and Cook Island Māori electronic practitioners from throughout the motu. In recent weeks Mokotron has won Te Tohu Kaipuoro Toa (Favourite Solo Act) at the 2024 Mighty Aotearoa Alternative Awards, performed a set for Boiler Room Aotearoa and been announced to perform at Port Noise Festival.

After the release of Ōhākī, Waerea and Ko Wai Koe? Mokotron shares the new album Waerea in its totality. Available digitally and on Vinyl LP, Waerea is a monumental release that has propelled the continued resurgence of Māori electronic music.

STREAM MOKOTRON - WAEREA

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Waerea’s tracks call for unity and solidarity as a way to counter the insidious actions of the recent coalition government and the introduction of the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill. Brooding breakbeats, Roots riddims and menacing sub frequencies form the basis for Waerea. Mokotron then adds a potent combination of plaintive koauau, rumbling purerehua and putorino to emote the anguish & utter disdain for the ongoing mistreatment of tangata whenua in Aotearoa, alongside the hope that arises from unity and resistance.

“To be honest, I’ve always had a vision of how this project should sound,” says Mokotron. “Karakia, tauparapara, bars - like whaikōrero flows, puoro, 97 Techstep darkstyle strings and bass, angular breaks, subterranean bass drops, 134 – 140BPM, DnB on Lean - DnBLean. I finally got the Mokotron sound on the tune Kōkiri, the album opener. So for me, the Mokotron kaupapa is finally about to start.

“I think first and foremost the goal was to produce an album. I’d already made four EPs (2020 Battlezone, 2021’s Tatau O Te Pō, 2022’s Tawhito and Embrace The Bass). Albums aren’t the typical format for electronic music, but weirdly in a way that makes them even more important, they play an important role in formalising a genre and bringing in attention from outside of the underground. I felt like an album was the kind of milestone and statement that was needed.”

Waerea was accompanied by three music videos made by animator Simon Ward in collaboration with James Paratii Lainchbury, Stevei Houkāmau and Kereama Taepa (made with support from NZ On Air Music & Te Māngi Pāho). Mokotron notes “the project feels multidimensional now, taking in the album artwork, videos, and collaborations with artists in spaces outside of music. I think I got quite stuck in a very small circle of supporters in the underground in Tāmaki but making music videos, performing around the country, working with George FM & BoilerRoom, and solidifying support across the StudentRadioNetwork has meant the project is reaching out to a much wider audience in the creative and political spheres, and starting to navigate out of the underground.”

Reflecting on Waerea's release Mokotron says “This is a major life goal, I’m happy to be on the cusp of achieving it. 2024 was the year that Māori electronic music came to the fore – is this the start of something or the end?”

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