The members of The Cortex Shift met as students of the music program at Heathfield High School in Heathfield, South Australia. Their first public performance was at the Hoot! Adelaide Hills Jazz Festival in June of 2012. In August that same year they won the Imaginate Battle of the Bands.
The Cortex Shift recorded and released their second album Songs in the Key of Lunchin 2017. After the studio session for this album took place in January, keyboardist and founding member Rohan Pullen moved to Canberra. Guitarist Sam Morris (Misfits of Sythia, Relict) joined the band in his place. During 2017 The Cortex Shift also supported Johannes S. Sistermanns (Germany) at COMA and were finalists under the experimental category for the SAM Awards. In 2018 the band released a live album that was professionally filmed.
The band's fourth official album Moose Sluicing Is Not The Answer was released in April 2019. In 2020 they supported Stereolab (UK) at Bonython Hall for the Adelaide Fringe and later released Nuisance Pooch. Filming of an ambitious DIY video clip for Nuisance Pooch began in late 2020.
