Curve (band)
Curve | |
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Curve live at Paradiso , Amsterdam , 1992 |
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General information | |
Genre (s) | Alternative rock , electronica , shoegazing |
founding | 1990 |
resolution | 1994, 2005 |
Website | www.curve.co.uk |
Founding members | |
Dean Garcia | |
Toni Halliday | |
Live members | |
guitar |
Alex Mitchell |
guitar |
Debbie Smith |
Drums |
Steve Monti |
Curve was a British alternative rock / electronica band founded in London in 1990 , consisting of guitarist and bassist Dean Garcia and singer-songwriter Toni Halliday.
history
Dean Garcia (* 1958) and Toni Halliday (* 1964) met through Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics . Garcia was the bass player for the Eurythmics live band from 1983 to 1984 and also played on the two studio albums Touch (1983) and Be Yourself Tonight (1985). Toni Halliday was at the time under contract as a solo artist with Stewart's label Anxious Records . Halliday and Garcia first founded the short-lived band State of Play in the mid-1980s , but continued to pursue their solo projects in the meantime, until they finally reunited as Curve in 1990 .
Curve released three highly acclaimed EPs on Anxious Records in 1991 , which were particularly successful in the independent charts . The debut album Doppelgänger was able to place in the UK album charts in March 1992. An extensive tour followed, during which Halliday and Garcia were supported by the two guitarists Debbie Smith (later Echobelly ) and Alex Mitchell, as well as by the drummer Steve Monti (formerly with Ian Dury and the Blockheads ). Highlights of Curves' live concerts include a performance at the Glastonbury Festival in 1992 and a joint US tour with The Jesus and Mary Chain and Spiritualized .
Curve's second studio LP Cuckoo from 1993 was more uncompromising and less catchy and could not surpass the previous chart successes. The failure and the subsequent exhausting tour led to the decision in 1994 to break up the band.
In 1996 Curve returned with the EP Pink Girl With the Blues . The following year they released Chinese Burn , a pre-release single from the new album Come Clean , which was released in 1998. The LP had stronger electronic music influences than the previous albums. The commercial success of the LP encouraged Halliday and Garcia to carry on. Smaller live appearances in Europe followed.
To Come Clean followed in 2001 a published exclusively on the Internet compilation entitled Open Day at the Hate Festival , and the same year the album Poison . In 2001, The New Adventures of Curve, an LP that was once again only available on the Internet, and numerous other tracks that can be downloaded from the group's website were released.
In 2004 the band released a retrospective with the double CD The Way of Curve . In 2005 Toni Halliday announced her final departure from Curve.
Dean Garcia subsequently started numerous new projects (including The Black Holes , The Chronologic , The Secret Meeting , KGC , Inkraktare , Morpheme , Blurred City Lights ), the most consistent and productive being the collaboration with his daughter Rose Berlin under the name SPC ECO . Toni Halliday released an album in 2010 with her solo project Chatelaine .
style
Largely characteristic of Curve's music are tightly layered, distorted electric guitar tracks accompanied by hard beats, which contrast with Halliday's intense, sometimes ethereal singing. The lyrics are mostly about alienation, addiction, lust, romance and dwindling love. Curve's debut album was compared by the critics with the shoegazing bands popular at the time, such as Lush , Ride or My Bloody Valentine , whereas from the second album onwards they were assigned a wide variety of styles, including industrial . With Come Clean and the later recordings, the electronic part dominates, whereby the once significant guitar sounds hardly occur anymore.
Discography
Studio albums
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
UK | |||
1992 | doppelganger |
UK11 (1 week) UK |
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1993 | Cuckoo |
UK29 (1 week) UK |
More studio albums
- Come Clean (1998)
- Poison (2001)
- The New Adventures Of Curve (2002; released online download only)
Compilations
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
UK | |||
1993 | Radio sessions |
UK72 (1 week) UK |
More compilations
- 1992: Pubic Fruit
- 2001: Open Day At The Hate Fest (released as download only)
- 2004: The Way Of Curve (double CD)
- 2010: Rare And Unreleased (only released as download on Bandcamp )
EPs and singles
year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
UK | |||
1991 | Blindfold |
UK68 (3 weeks) UK |
EP
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Frozen / Coast Is Clear |
UK34 (3 weeks) UK |
EP
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Clipped / Cherry |
UK36 (2 weeks) UK |
EP
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1992 | Faît Accompli doppelganger |
UK22 (3 weeks) UK |
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Horror Head doppelganger |
UK31 (2 weeks) UK |
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1993 | Blackerthreetracker Cuckoo |
UK39 (2 weeks) UK |
EP
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1996 | Pink Girl With the Blues |
UK97 (1 week) UK |
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1998 | Coming Up Roses Come Clean |
UK51 (2 weeks) UK |
More singles & EPs
- 1993: Super Blaster
- 1997: Chinese Burn
- 1998: Alligators Getting Up
- 2002: Perish
- 2003: Want More Need Less
Web links
- Curve website (English)
- Cuckoo's Nest - the Curve archive (English)
- Curve at Allmusic (English)
- Curve at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Touch - Eurythmics. Allmusic, accessed February 9, 2011 .
- ^ Be Yourself Tonight - Eurythmics. Allmusic, accessed February 9, 2011 .
- ↑ Top 40 Official UK Albums. The Official UK Charts Company, March 1992, accessed February 9, 2011 .
- ↑ Exclusice Interview: SPC ECO's Dean Garcia Love Is Pop, September 6, 2013
- ↑ Curve. NME Interview, June 27, 1992. In: New Musical Express (NME). Cuckoo's Nest - the Curve archive, accessed February 22, 2011 .
- ↑ Boomerang & Roll. 1998. In: Alternative Press. Cuckoo's Nest - the Curve archive, accessed February 22, 2011 .
- ↑ a b c Chart sources: UK