Curve (band)

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Curve
Background information
Origin Flag of England England
Genre(s) Shoegaze, Electronica, Alternative rock
Years active 1991-1994, 1996-2005
Label(s) Anxious, Universal
Associated
acts		 State of Play
Website Curve.co.uk
Former members
Dean Garcia, Toni Halliday

Curve was an English music group formed in 1991 chiefly around the collaboration of singer Toni Halliday and guitarist Dean Garcia.

Contents

[edit] History

Halliday and Garcia were introduced to each other by fellow musician Dave Stewart of Eurythmics; Garcia had played bass guitar as part of Eurythmics' live band in 1983–84 and on two of their studio albums, while Halliday was signed to Stewart's Anxious Records label as a solo artist. The pair formed an ill-fated group named State Of Play in the mid-1980s before parting ways, embarking on a no less ill-fated solo career (Halliday) and further stints as a backing musician (Garcia), and then reuniting for a more long-term partnership in Curve.

Curve released three acclaimed and increasingly successful EPs throughout 1991, and made an impact on the UK album charts in 1992 with their debut LP Doppelgänger. The group also toured extensively during this period, with Halliday and Garcia being supported on stage by two additional guitarists and a drummer. Highlights of Curve's live career included a performance at the 1992 Glastonbury Festival, and a package tour of the United States with The Jesus and Mary Chain and Spiritualized.

Curve's second LP, the harder-edged Cuckoo (1993), did not repeat the UK Top 20 success of the band's debut. That fact, and the stressfulness of the tour in support of the record, may have contributed to Halliday and Garcia's decision, in 1994, to disband the group.

Curve unexpectedly returned to the music business in 1996 with the EP Pink Girl With the Blues; the following year, they released "Chinese Burn", the first single to be taken from their third all-new album Come Clean (1998). That LP, a set of songs displaying a more pronounced influence of electronic music than earlier releases, was met with a certain amount of acclaim and commercial success, which encouraged the group to continue their recording career.

The follow-up to Come Clean was an internet-only odds-and-sods collection titled Open Day at the Hate Fest; it was quickly followed by the all-new Gift (both 2001). During this period, Curve were almost as prolific as during their first three years, releasing another web-only, LP-length collection (The New Adventures of Curve) in 2002, and various download-only tracks via their official website.

A 2-CD retrospective entitled The Way of Curve summarised the group's output in 2004, before Halliday announced, in early 2005, that she had left Curve for good. Whether this is Halliday and Garcia's final curtain call, or just their most recent hiatus, remains to be seen.

[edit] Music

For the most part, Curve's music was typified by heavy beats and densely-layered guitar tracks set against Halliday's sometimes airy, sometimes intense vocalizations of lyrics that frequently explored topics such as alienation, addiction, and love on the wane. While the band's early releases were either lumped in, by certain British music reviewers, with the then-popular shoegazing style of guitar-based rock music, or said to borrow heavily from Gothic Rock, their second LP Cuckoo was noted to feature a broader set of influences, such as industrial and electronica. On Come Clean, and the records that followed, the electronic portions of the band's music became more prominent - to the extent of some recordings from the final years of their career featuring no guitars at all. Perhaps also as a result of this development, fans of the group are divided as to which Curve release is the most satisfying.

It has been claimed by both Curve aficionados and music writers that British/American grunge-pop band Garbage appropriated large portions of Curve's musical template, and constructed from it more 'mainstream' material, albeit with a certain 'edge' remaining. Toni Halliday has occasionally commented on the comparisons between both groups, stating at one point - in an interview conducted by Volume magazine in 1996 - that she could "see bits of Garbage in what we've done, just like we see bits of Sonic Youth or the Valentines or really any band that was doing something supposedly outside the norm. In a way it's very flattering to be tied in with [Garbage drummer and co-producer] Butch Vig, not just because he's a brilliant human being, but because he's a brilliant producer, and he's worked on some of our favourite records. But eventually Garbage are a pop band, and Curve were never a pop band."

[edit] Discography

EPs and Singles

  • Blindfold (1991; UK #68): "Ten Little Girls" (featuring JC-001)/"I Speak Your Every Word"/"Blindfold"/"No Escape From Heaven"
  • Frozen (1991; UK #34): "Coast Is Clear"/"The Colour Hurts"/"Frozen"/"Zoo"
  • Cherry (1991; UK #36): "Clipped"/"Die Like a Dog"/"Galaxy"/"Cherry"; 10" vinyl also includes "I Speak Your Every Word" (featuring JC-001)
  • Faît Accompli (1992; UK #22): "Faît Accompli" (single version)/"Arms Out"/"Sigh" (CD & 12" vinyl); "Faît Accompli" (extended mix)/"Coast Is Clear" (live)/"Die Like a Dog" (live) (12" vinyl)
  • Horror Head (1992; UK #31): "Horror Head" (remix)/"Falling Free"/"Mission From God"/"Today Is Not the Day"
  • Blackerthreetracker (1993; UK #39): "Missing Link" (single version)/"On the Wheel"/"Triumph"
  • Blackerthreetrackertwo (1993): "Missing Link" (screaming bird mix)/"Rising" (headspace mix)/;Half the Time" (honey tongue mix)
  • Superblaster (1993): "Superblaster" (remix)/"Low and Behold"/"Nothing Without Me"
  • Pink Girl With the Blues (1996): "Pink Girl With the Blues"/"Recovery"/"Black Delilah"
  • Perish (2002): "Perish"/"Want More Need Less"/"Recovery" (2002 version)
  • Want More Need Less (2003): "Want More Need Less"/"My Tiled White Floor"/"Bleeding Heart"

Albums

  • The New Adventures of Curve (2002; internet-only release): "Answers"/"Till The Cows Come Home"/""Every Good Girl"/"Cold Comfort" (Deepsky remix)/"Star"/"Nice and Easy"/"Signals and Alibis"/"Sinner"/"Joy"

Compilations

  • Pubic Fruit (1992; US-only compilation of the Blindfold, Frozen and Cherry EPs, plus the extended mix of "Faît Accompli")
  • The Way of Curve (2004; 2-CD retrospective): "Ten Little Girls"/"Coast Is Clear"/"Clipped"/"Die Like A Dog"/"Horror Head"/"Fait Accompli"/"Missing Link"/"Superblaster"/"Pink Girl With the Blues"/"Recovery"/"Chinese Burn"/"Coming Up Roses"/"Hell Above Water"/"Want More Need Less"/"Perish"/"Nice and Easy"/"On The Wheel"/"Triumph"/"Arms Out"/"Sigh"/"Mission From God"/"Today Is Not the Day"/"Low And Behold"/"Nothing Without Me"/"What a Waste" (featuring Ian Dury)/"Falling Free" (Aphex Twin mix)/"Chinese Burn" (Lunatic Calm mix)/"Coming Up Roses" (Kevin Shields mix)/"I Feel Love"/"In Disguise"/"Sinner"

[edit] External links

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