| Possibly the most distinctive Australian hip-hop group to date is Melbourne-based Curse ov Dialect, whose surreal rainbow hip-hop samples ethic folk music from around the world, and whose emcees Raceless, Vulk Makedonski, August the 2nd (the date of World Anglo-India Day), Atarungi and Dj Paso Bionic represent Maltese, Macedonian, Indian, Maori, and Burmese cultural backgrounds. Raceless is wont to dress up and declaim as Captain Cook, complete with periwig, while Vulk is kitted out in traditional Macedonian costume and performs dance steps to match, August the 2nd might don a grass skirt and bare chest, and Atarungi (whose name means "witch doctor" in Maori) strikes poses and offers vocalisations costumed as a tree or completely swathed in a shroud. Dj Paso Bionic, with his Adidas track suit, who also doubles duties with neighbouring crew Tzu, is the only conventional hip-hop figure in sight. The whole group share production duties, and the result is among the wildest and weirdest hip-hop beats around. Although they are by no means the first group to sample Dario Argento soundtracks, the crowded, cluttered and constantly surprising sounds they accumulate are unconventional to say the least. This means they have garnered a swag of impressive reviews in the USA - which can be sampled on their website along with some totally dismissive ones from more orthodox hip-hop heads. Their wild, swirling, chaotic and cacophonic live performances have to be seen to be believed, and take hip-hop into areas of world music, sonic bricolage and avant-garde performance undreamt of by most US practitioners. Reproducing this on CD is a tall order, but the lyrics which are included here reveal there are some serious messages behind all the surreal parody, clowning and loony pastiche. "All Cultures" celebrates Australia's cultural diversity with music to match, while Joelistics, the Eurasian-Australian emcee from Tzu, attacks colonialism and demands an apology to Aborigines, "Multicultural Markets" celebrates global bazaars from China to Arabia, and Uzbeki Westerns features Atarungi's new age offer to "caress your emptiness while reminiscing times I've missed." But this is by no means "message rap," since most of the lyrics (and vocal samples from sports broadcasts, radio programs, TV jingles, Indian chants etc.) defy logic in offering a collage of fragmented stream of consciousness verging on nonsense, although the odd phrase surfaces to lodge momentarily in the mind, only to be displaced by a cartoon voices and inane rhymes (as in "Upside Down Frowns"). Vulk does his Macedonian turn, with folk music to match, on "Curse ov the Vulk Makendonki," and "Family Assorted" features no fewer than fifteen guest emcees, including Brisbane's Lioness and Melbourne's Lil G (also known as the Wogarigine). The bewildering diversity of samples, voices, ideas, shifts of tempo and direction sometimes recall the Avalanches, along with a prevailing levity and irrepressible positivity which never lets proceedings take themselves too seriously. Along with groups like Melbourne trio Sista She, Curse ov Dialect are taking hip-hop into outer musical reaches where a distinctively Australian multivocal eccentricity is re-making the genre in a highly original way. Recently they performed on the same bill in Sydney with avant garde electronica noise artists Pimmon and Kid 606 - what they are doing may not be hip-hop any more, but both local and global hip-hop is far better for it. - Music Forum |
2XLP/Out Of Print