South Australian hip hop group DEM MOB have released their new single and music video, ‘Frequency’, created in collaboration with the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).
The track marks a return home for the group after years travelling between Adelaide and the APY Lands. For the recording, DEM MOB loaded a recording van and travelled to Wali Kutju, Basso’s family homeland, roughly an hour south of Uluru. With no mains power available at the site, the recording sessions ran from a generator, with Basso’s father and uncle also joining the sessions.
The group says the location was central to the creation of the track, with Country, family and culture shaping the recording process.
‘Frequency’ explores ideas around inheritance, cultural knowledge and what is passed between generations. Its refrain calls on listeners to open their body, mind and Kurunpa, the Pitjantjatjara word for soul.
DEM MOB describe the song as a “generational song”, centred on learning from elders, keeping knowledge alive and passing it forward. The group connects the song’s themes to the continuation of Anangu culture, including language, Country, song, dance and ways of living.
The track also became the starting point for a new visual project after DEM MOB were selected through a joint competition run by triple j, rage and NIDA. The opportunity gave the group a week in Sydney working alongside NIDA students to create the official music video.
The resulting production brought together the song’s remote origins and a Sydney soundstage, with the video directed by Elyse Armstrong and produced by Tianna Perini. Dillon Mak served as director of photography, with Adithi Iyer as production designer and Cameron Manion as editor.
‘Frequency’ is now available to buy and stream.
Formed in the remote APY Lands of South Australia, DEM MOB are described as the first hip hop group to rap in Pitjantjatjara. The quartet has developed a body of work combining English and Pitjantjatjara verses, with hip hop used as a vehicle for education and equity in remote Australia.
The group has performed at WOMADelaide, Primavera Sound in Barcelona, SXSW Sydney, New York’s Lincoln Center and the Toronto International First Nations Summit. Their accolades include multiple South Australian Music Awards, the APRA Emily Burrows Award and the Helpmann Academy’s Elise Ross Prize.
DEM MOB have also worked extensively in education, including helping open the new Fregon Anangu School in the far north of South Australia’s Anangu Lands, where they ran songwriting, performance and stagecraft workshops with ARIA Award-winning rapper BARKAA.
Produced by the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and Triple J
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