LOCAL luminaries Curse ov Dialect have been fighting the good fight for cultural, spiritual and ethnic identity since 1994, touring all over to eager, conscious audiences.
HIP hop has long been a subversive art form. From Grandmaster Flash's anti-drug tirade on White Lines, to Gil Scott Heron's spoken wordsmithery on The Revolution Will Not Be Televised right up to Nas' recent declaration Hip Hop Is Dead. Local luminaries Curse ov Dialect have been fighting the good fight for cultural, spiritual and ethnic identity since 1994, touring all over Australia and Europe to eager, conscious audiences. Curse ov Dialect consists of MCs Raceless and Vulk Makedonski and vocalists Aturungi and August the 2nd backed up by DJ/producer Paso Bionic. The group have a diverse range of backgrounds - Maltese, Macedonian, Anglo-Indian, Maori and Pakistani - thus their ouevre is not such much a melting point of culture as a boiling cauldron. "We're the outcasts of the outcasts in the way we perceive the world,'' begins Raceless. Tonight sees Curse ov Dialect extend their modus operandi to a full-blown musical. "Our shows have always been theatrical hip hop and Arts House asked us to develop it more. We wanted to extend on what we're doing. "It's a musical, a very abstract interpretation through song of who we are as individuals and figuring out a way of finding common ground. "Everyone's got their own solo and all the songs are new,'' he enthuses. "We've got some pretty wacky ideas and they are getting brought out tonight, like Chinese music mixed with African folk hip hop beats...and that's just one song!'' Raceless draws upon his upbringing in St Albans, and spins tales of hanging out with Vietnamese gangs drinking coffees and going to old men's houses to obtain classical music. Clearly, he has lived. The revolution may not be televised, but tonight it will be staged live in a universal dialect.Curse ov Dialect, Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall, 5 Blackwood Street. 8pm. $10/$12
