Five seconds into Mayke’s latest track, a collaboration with ECHO ATARI titled ‘Portal2044’, you know Something Big is Going Down. Kinetic, bouncing synths guide you to the starting line as frantic trance arpeggios glitter around you. The players are introduced, Mayke and ECHO ATARI’s producer tags stuttering across the waves, and the game begins. It’s like listening to the musical equivalent of the starting countdown of a Mario Kart race on Rainbow Road.

The track is the second released on streaming this year by Eora Sydney’s Justin Pix, a.k.a. FBi’s latest Independent Artist of the Week Mayke, in his new hyperpop era. Seven years earlier Mayke had first cut his teeth making EDM.

“During high school it all started with Skrillex. I just loved him so much and so I started making a lot of music like that. It was a lot of years of experimentation.”

A glance at Mayke’s SoundCloud reveals an extensive archive of thumping trap, with original tracks like ‘cold minds’ alongside fresh remixes of Aussie EDM giants like What So Not and Alison Wonderland. His remix of Flume’s Wall F**k (Mayke’s ‘Wall Frick’ Flip) has racked up over 130K streams alone. 

“There was a moment where I really went heavy with the EDM stuff. But then I just lost my passion.”

After five-odd years of creating, Mayke took a hiatus. The pandemic presented an opportunity for some cocooning, the genesis of something new. Arguably not just for Mayke, but for the music scene in general. Alone together, artists and fans grew increasingly connected across the globe as new wacky and weird genres of electronic music were brought to the forefront by the terminally online generation. The movement was pushed further by URL parties, such as Club Quarantine and Square Garden. 

Among all this buzz sat Mayke, inspired by the likes of SOPHIE, underscores, A. G. Cook, and Pink Pantheress to begin making music again, although this time in a new genre. Let’s not even get into the ‘what is hyperpop / is hyperpop even a real genre or just a corporatised bastard of post-streaming playlist culture / and why tf is 100 gecs grouped in this genre alongside Caroline freaking Polachek’ debate. The community has been active for a couple of years now, and unlike many music micro-trends, seems to be here to stay. Perhaps because of its inherent pastiche-ness hyperpop as a genre will attain a relative longevity just by continuously reinventing itself. Or perhaps its Gen Z, enthralled by the pitched-up, death-inside-the-machine screams as hyperpop captures a generational zeitgeist that can’t otherwise be put into words.

“I love this little scene that’s going on here.”

Either way, something seems to be taking, and that something found its way to Eora Sydney to seed what is now a thriving garden for the so-called Australian hyperpop scene. Mayke has blossomed among this, a brilliant new flower facing the sun alongside the likes of Parasol, Grasps, Trophie, Ninajirachi, Daine, and more. 

It’s clear Mayke feels this new potential. ‘Portal2044’s moody, emotive vocals elicit an electronic ego-death, urgently calling for an escape from the idle confines of 21st century monotony via a magic little portal to 2044 (the postcode of inner west suburb St Peters). The track is at once a massive contribution to, and a huge celebration of, Eora Sydney’s bustling hyperpop scene.

“It’s a very exciting moment for Sydney. I love being a part of it.”

Listen back to the full interview with Mayke up top. You can also stream his new track with EKO ATARI ‘Portal2044’ below.