We travel back to the dark days of 1993 to look at Curve’s second full length release, Cuckoo, a dark, noisy, brilliant album. Back when the electronic mash up of samples, noises and distortions were being assembled with something like the rock and metal vibe, something that Trent Reznor would pioneer, and Filter would take to extreme with Hey Man Nice Shot, Curve was releasing a series of small singles with some of the same intensity, but a cooler, more detached demeanor. Taking the training wheels off, they would release Doppleganger in 1990, with a stunning track in Fait Accompli to cap off a great first effort.
Cuckoo would follow up two years later. Toni Halliday, who suffered the handicap of being hot in a decidedly goth way, opens up the album with the lines “I had a heart but I buried it someplace/I had a brain but my body won the race”, perhaps in reaction to the someone in the brit music press memorably calling her a “nosferatu love kitten”, surely one of the great nicknames of all time. What Toni, I’m sure, thought was lost was that she was a confident vocalist with a strong presence who was more than just a pretty face.
Working with Alan Moulder, Garcia and Halliday would craft an album that is filled with deep throbbing bass lines, powerful guitars and interesting percussion, over which all of Toni applied her icy vocals. Curve understood the delicate balance of light and heavy that Nine Inch Nails did so well on their first album and then lost.
Was it Toni or Dean that wrote “There she is in the doghouse/she sure doesn’t’ know what she’s done wrong/still she lies in the doghouse/don’t think that she can carry on” on
There was that moment in time in 92 or 93 when if you weren’t Nirvana (or a Blink 182 follow-up) then you were crushed under the weight of the single wave of grunge. Curve was too controlled, too icy, and too English at times to have ever reached the critical mass, despite the craft that they displayed. Now, almost 15 years on, we can listen Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus, the 3rd track in, without completely cringing that they decided to lift that particular bit of pop culture for a title. Listen to Toni’s breathy deliver on the first part of the chorus, and you’ll find yourself hearing that in your head the next time you see the book in the remainder bin at Barnes and Noble.
Even the production works at high volume; indeed, the album makes use of the broader palette on CD to produce work that needs to be played in a large space with a good sound system. Cuckoo was on the jukebox at the Sophies, one of my favorite pool playing joints on
Curve would record other albums long after this one, but to me, this is the one that stands up as Toni and Dean are at the height of their creative powers. The balance is just right. Turn out the lights and turn up the music.
Below, a video from Missing Link from Cuckoo.- The Fearless Rock Iguana
Buy here: Cuckoo
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