Curve - Gift
Curve
Gift (2001)
Hip-O/Universal Records
Produced by Curve with Ben Grosse
Personnel:
Dean Garcia - bass, guitar, programming and noise
Toni Halliday - words, vocals and guitar noise
with:
Kevin Shields, Geno Lenardo, Alan Moulder - guitar
Flood - bleeps and analogs
Alan Wilder - strings and ambience
and more.
Curve have been split since 2004, and the world is poorer for their absence. A duo of uncompromising focus musically but highly combustible personnally, Curve spent 15 years mapping out a sound that has been mined by many (Garbage and U2 come to mind) but never successfully duplicated. Cheekily referred to as "filth pop" Curve's name was appropriate; even when it appeared as they were going to come straight at you, they would end up swerving and swinging around you at angles. A mix of the infectiously accessible and the emphatically left of center. Early on they were often lumped with the shoegazer set, but they sat well apart with Toni Halliday's elliptically suggestive style (the woman could recite a meatloaf recipe and her delivery could turn it into a dark erotic monologue on contact) and Dean Garcia's Phil Spector Overdrive instrumental style (dirty and elastic basslines, dense walls of riffs and synths, and beats that careen and settle and rise up again to suggest all manner of sonic violence, packed under pressure and shaken) made for something a little deeper than simple pseudo-industrial pop or electronically dressed up dreary rock (a role currently owned by various post-punk derivatives whose named end in -o).
Gift was their final official studio album on a major label, and it is --to use a horrid pun-- a spectacular parting gift*.
There is a claustrophobia that sticks to you on Bleeding Heart and Chainmail, and you get your ears boxed by the opener Hell Above the Water. I am still not sure if I am sold on the processed vocals, but the track itself is like anger and vertigo in a small room trying to copulate, with extra noisy riffage by Geno Lenardo of Filter. Which reminds me, this band is connected to and has long histories with a lot of heavy hitters, which is why you can have Ben Grosse (Filter, Ben Folds), Alan Wilder (Depeche Mode, Recoil), and Flood (Smashing Pumpkins, U2) all on one track, in this case, Polaroid. Oddly enough, this album was the first that did not involve long time producers Steve Osbourne and Alan Moulder (except for the latters brief guitar contribution). But I digress....
There is some layered madness in Chainmail and Hung Up, where driving, straighforward sections give way to squalls of synths, bleeps, ponks and other technical musical terms. The almost jangly guitars of Want More Need Less (provided by My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields) add to the tracks anthemic feel, which is extremely similar to Curve's early EP sound. Truth be told, much of Gift sounds like a rather well crafted marriage of their earlier outings with the more corrosive sound of albums like Come Clean.
Even when the riffs are simple, it is the choice of sounds (layers and layers of them, joining and exploding apart), and an overall production quality that I would place as some of the best anywhere, that helps give an undeniable edge. The title track and Hell Above the Water are good examples.
But the opus here is the 5+ minutes of Perish, a song that might have been written as a coda to the band itself. An elegaic track, Halliday sounds even more exposed than normal, which is saying a lot, and Garcia tracks a cut so lush and rich. It is flawless from the opening note to the fade out, and a showcase for Halliday's regal lyrical prowess. Curve was never one to lean into angst and pity or impotent anger, but had a much more direct, pithy route to the darker and vulnerable parts of the person -- which made them always a bit more dangerous.
Buy this.
* Subsequent to this, Curve released a collection of tracks previously available at various times as mp3 releases from their website, called Open Day at the Hatefest, and a 2CD collection of singles, b-sides and unreleased material, the Way of Curve followed as a closing statement.
You might like this if you like:
Garbage - any
U2 - Achtung Baby
Depeche Mode - Songs of Faith and Devotion
Filter - Title of Record
NIN - The Fragile
Gift (2001)
Hip-O/Universal Records
Produced by Curve with Ben Grosse
Personnel:
Dean Garcia - bass, guitar, programming and noise
Toni Halliday - words, vocals and guitar noise
with:
Kevin Shields, Geno Lenardo, Alan Moulder - guitar
Flood - bleeps and analogs
Alan Wilder - strings and ambience
and more.
Curve have been split since 2004, and the world is poorer for their absence. A duo of uncompromising focus musically but highly combustible personnally, Curve spent 15 years mapping out a sound that has been mined by many (Garbage and U2 come to mind) but never successfully duplicated. Cheekily referred to as "filth pop" Curve's name was appropriate; even when it appeared as they were going to come straight at you, they would end up swerving and swinging around you at angles. A mix of the infectiously accessible and the emphatically left of center. Early on they were often lumped with the shoegazer set, but they sat well apart with Toni Halliday's elliptically suggestive style (the woman could recite a meatloaf recipe and her delivery could turn it into a dark erotic monologue on contact) and Dean Garcia's Phil Spector Overdrive instrumental style (dirty and elastic basslines, dense walls of riffs and synths, and beats that careen and settle and rise up again to suggest all manner of sonic violence, packed under pressure and shaken) made for something a little deeper than simple pseudo-industrial pop or electronically dressed up dreary rock (a role currently owned by various post-punk derivatives whose named end in -o).
Gift was their final official studio album on a major label, and it is --to use a horrid pun-- a spectacular parting gift*.
There is a claustrophobia that sticks to you on Bleeding Heart and Chainmail, and you get your ears boxed by the opener Hell Above the Water. I am still not sure if I am sold on the processed vocals, but the track itself is like anger and vertigo in a small room trying to copulate, with extra noisy riffage by Geno Lenardo of Filter. Which reminds me, this band is connected to and has long histories with a lot of heavy hitters, which is why you can have Ben Grosse (Filter, Ben Folds), Alan Wilder (Depeche Mode, Recoil), and Flood (Smashing Pumpkins, U2) all on one track, in this case, Polaroid. Oddly enough, this album was the first that did not involve long time producers Steve Osbourne and Alan Moulder (except for the latters brief guitar contribution). But I digress....
There is some layered madness in Chainmail and Hung Up, where driving, straighforward sections give way to squalls of synths, bleeps, ponks and other technical musical terms. The almost jangly guitars of Want More Need Less (provided by My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields) add to the tracks anthemic feel, which is extremely similar to Curve's early EP sound. Truth be told, much of Gift sounds like a rather well crafted marriage of their earlier outings with the more corrosive sound of albums like Come Clean.
Even when the riffs are simple, it is the choice of sounds (layers and layers of them, joining and exploding apart), and an overall production quality that I would place as some of the best anywhere, that helps give an undeniable edge. The title track and Hell Above the Water are good examples.
But the opus here is the 5+ minutes of Perish, a song that might have been written as a coda to the band itself. An elegaic track, Halliday sounds even more exposed than normal, which is saying a lot, and Garcia tracks a cut so lush and rich. It is flawless from the opening note to the fade out, and a showcase for Halliday's regal lyrical prowess. Curve was never one to lean into angst and pity or impotent anger, but had a much more direct, pithy route to the darker and vulnerable parts of the person -- which made them always a bit more dangerous.
Buy this.
* Subsequent to this, Curve released a collection of tracks previously available at various times as mp3 releases from their website, called Open Day at the Hatefest, and a 2CD collection of singles, b-sides and unreleased material, the Way of Curve followed as a closing statement.
You might like this if you like:
Garbage - any
U2 - Achtung Baby
Depeche Mode - Songs of Faith and Devotion
Filter - Title of Record
NIN - The Fragile
posted by theloniusfunk at 1:19 AM
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