Curve

Have you heard… Curve?

Music genre: Shoegazing indie? Goth? Electronica? We’re not quite sure!

What on earth were Curve, apart from one of the seminal underground bands of the 1990s? Were they shoegazing indie? Goth? Electronica? We’re not quite sure! They sound nice all the same, and ‘Fait Accompli’ off the Doppelganger LP stands the test of time. Curvy…

Curve was an English music group formed in 1990 chiefly around the collaboration of singer/songwriter Toni Halliday and bassist/guitarist/programmer Dean Garcia.

Were they indie? Were they goth? Were they electronica? They weren’t quite any of these, but nice all the same.

Curve tracks are gritty and noodly and floaty with a sort of sexy thing going on. It’s mainly down to Toni’s incredible vocals – and let’s not forget that Curve probably influenced Garbage substantially. If you kick your heels off in slow-mo and collapse on a four poster bed floating in space – or if you’re driving down route 66 wearing giant shades and almost strangling yourself on your own headscarf – there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be listening to Curve while you did it.

Here’s the muso bit from Wikipedia:

“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, lust, romance, 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 hardly any guitar sounds. Perhaps also as a result of this development, fans of the group are divided as to which Curve release is the most satisfying.”

Well, maybe. But the LP that made everyone sit up and beg was, without a doubt, the Doppelganger LP (which features ‘Fait Accompli’), and every goth, indie girl and eclectic chiquita should have it in their collection, or at the very least give Fait Accompli a download.

Curve have sadly disbanded now. Sometimes there’s just too much water under the bridge for a band to stick together.

Message from Toni Halliday in 2005:

Dear Fans Everywhere,

before I start I would just like to thank all of you for your loyalty and commitment to Curve over the years, it has been a lifesaver on many a dark night. Unfortunately after much thought and consideration I have come to the realisation that I can no longer continue with Curve on a musical level and have therefore decided to pursue other avenues. I won’t go into details but a few things happened to me last year that really drained me of any confidence I had and made me realise it was time to move on or be in danger of becoming bitter and twisted and losing my love for music. I have also felt less and less fulfilled with my position in Curve over the last few years and seemed to be no longer enjoying my work as much as I have in the past. I do intend to do small one off projects in the future but nothing that needs the time and commitment of a full time band. I hope that you understand my feelings on this, we have been together a long time and I feel that it has come to it’s natural end with a lot of good work achieved in the last 15 years. I wish YOU all the best for the future,

Best Wishes,

Toni.