The group formed in 1994 with the original lineup consisting of MC Raceless, MC Malice and DJ Paso Bionic on turntables. This lineup recorded their demo cassette
Evil Klownz (1995) and
Hex Ov Intellect (1998). Not long after the release of
Hex Ov Intellect, they met
Ollie Olsen (
Max Q,
No) who went on to produce their self-titled EP
Curse Ov Dialect (2000). Malice left the group during the recording of
Curse Ov Dialect and was replaced by Atarangi, 2 August and Volk Makedonski. With this lineup, they grew in popularity due to their wild live shows and strong anti-racist, anti-homophobic and internationalist message at a time of rising
xenophobia in Australian politics and society. After shows supporting
Anticon (
Doseone,
Sole, and
Jel) in 2001, they landed a record deal with
Mush Records which released
Lost in the Real Sky in 2003. The album was mixed by Paso Bionic and mastered by Simon Polinski. Upon release, it was awarded 'Album of the Week' on
3RRR and
3PBS. Sebastian Chan says that "whilst [the album] radiates strong psychedelic surrealism, at the core, there are strong anti-racist, multiculturalist themes – which give the record a very specific Australian-ness. Likewise, the beats are drawn from literally everywhere – Arabic, mediaeval English, and of course traditional Macedonian." Anthony Carew in
The Age wrote "from acknowledging racist states, to attacking such prejudice, to dreaming of some utopian global community in which 'all cultures come together', the album, unlike so many rap records, finds the lyricists talking about not just themselves, but the world at large." Brian Ho at Dusted Magazine described it as "a wonderfully imagined album that successfully borrows and reinterprets sounds from all facets of music and culture, creatively but still with enough energy and bounce for frequent neck exercise." Curse Ov Dialect followed with
Wooden Tongues in 2006. Mixed by
Cornel Wilczek and mastered by
François Tétaz, their second effort for Mush Records received equally positive praise. Brian Turner of
WFMU described the album as having "flowing rhymes and scratches [that] complement
Muslimgauze-ish beats, baroque horns, kid choruses and operatic flights,
Bollywood cooing, Balkan horn blasts all presented in sharp precision appropriate to the assorted lyrics (which focus, needless to say, on worldly diversity/cultural unity). It's admirable that all this can be presented with total energy and cohesiveness while *still* acknowledging all that is right about hip-hop history". Beat Magazine noted that "the biggest shock is that the second half plays with shade and texture, revealing subtlety to be one of their strengths, possibly the only thing not sampled on their debut." Their next album
Crisis Tales was mixed by
Danielsan and mastered by François Tétaz. The album was released in Australia by Mistletone and internationally via Staubgold in 2009. The song "85 percent" received high rotation on
Triple J. Dan Rule in
Music Australia Guide found that "while as untethered as ever, new record Crisis Tales is also Curse's most concise. Even with jaunts into previously unexplored terrains... there's an unswerving quality to the production that harnesses each of Crisis Tales' disparate strands." Shaun Prescott in
Mess+Noise wrote "Crisis Tales is a maximal cluster fuck of references, lectures, wordplay and contorted surrealism. It's a result of a hip-hop generation tanked with input and ever greedy for more, eager to be overloaded by disparate textures and unorthodox style/aesthetic/philosophical cohabitation." Ron Hart in
Pop Matters noted that "some may not have much interest in issues such as Aboriginal rights or the rampant political corruption of Curse Ov Dialect's home continent, Crisis Tales nevertheless commands attention, thanks to the uncanny mic skills of MCs Raceless and Volk Makedonski and their unique back-and-forth with vocalists August the 2nd and Atarungi." ==Live performances==