On the eve of a Brisbane tour to celebrate the release of new album Wooden Tongues, RACELESS of CURSE OV DIALECT and ANDREW TUTTLE discuss sampling, live performance and appropriate recognition.

After a two year wait following their breakthrough 2004 album Lost In The Real Sky, Melbourne-based avant-hip hop act Curse Ov Dialect return with Wooden Tongues. Painstakingly created by the band (MCs Raceless, Atarungi, August 2, Vulk Makedonski and DJ Paso Bionic) over the past two or three years, Wooden Tongues is an original hip-hop masterpiece, with further honing of their individualist multicultural raps and sampledelic approach to beat-making (with samples sourced from “traditional op-shop records, hunting for weird stuff online, ethnic record stores”). Of this process, Raceless explains that:

“We've just gone through our huge varieties of genres of music that we all collect from all different genres; from psychedelic rock to experimental music to ethnic music; and we put it together into a stew to create tracks that are social and political or personal. It's very mixed up and pretty far out.”

What sets COD apart from many of their Antipodean contemporaries is their all-risk approach to hip hop. Not to name names, but COD are all the better for their determination to explore the dark and ugly side of Australian society as well as their aim to encompass their multicultural heritage. Accordingly, as Raceless explains, an inherent darkness resulting from intense social and personal exploration is ultimately unavoidable.

“We'd like for there to be more of an understanding in Australia of what we do. A lot of people think that it isn't hip hop, but we think the things that we do are probably hip hop than what people think hip hop is.” 

“I think anything we make has that element of darkness as we have weird sounds that you can't identify with to create a particular mood to create some sort of mystery. I think we've been going through personal stuff about getting older, tackling personal issues as well as social issues on this record. It's a little bit surreal.”

Trainspotters may notice that Wooden Tongues features a cameo freestyle from Brisbane based Japanese ex-pat rapper MC Potato Master. Of the origins of the collaborative effort, it formed “when we toured in Japan in 2004 and [we] really connected with him. Later on he came to Melbourne, he dropped a freestyle and we really wanted it as an interlude [on Wooden Tongues].

COD hit the sunshine state this week for a unique all-ages album launch with Mountains In The Sky and an appearance at the 4ZZZ Market Day. As those who have seen the band in the past will willingly testify, COD are an entirely engaging animal live. Good vibes, crazy costumes, phenomenal rapping and a slight element of danger combine to create a show reveling in an individuality that too many acts sadly lack. Asked to describe the COD live show in his words, Raceless offers “a hip hop multicultural medieval circus.” You can’t really top that.

Curse Ov Dialect play the Judith Wright Centre Friday October 20 and 4ZZZ Market Day Saturday October 21. Wooden Tongues is out now on Mush/Valve/MGM.

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