0n the rebound
With a new album and a new tour, CURVE are giving early retirement a body swerve. Words: Alastair Mabbott
With a moniker like (‘urye. it doesn’t seem odd that Toni llalliday and Dean Garcia should boomerang back out of the bltte long after we thought we'd seen the last of them. The duo‘s distorted. drum-machine- driyen hullabaloo made an aggressively pointed contrast to the shoega/ers of the early ‘)()s. and since they split up. in NW. their once-daring aesthetic has shouldered its way into the mainstream. There are elements in the cttrrent music of ['3 and Garbage. for instance. that old (‘urye fans tnttst find old hat. So that's it. then: ('urye haye rekindled their partnership because the world has caught tip with them at last and the twosome want to reap the rewards that should haye been theirs first time around.
l'h. no. as it happens. ‘I don't really see it like that.‘ llalliday objects. ‘I went round to Dean's for a cup of tea. because we‘re still mates. It wasn‘t like we hated each other and weren‘t speaking. We'ye been really good friends for a long time. Partly why we weren‘t working together was because we wanted to remain good friends. The friendship between us was more important than being in some rock band. I don‘t think either of us would sacrifice our relationships for that.‘
After (‘urye. llalliday went out fronting an all-
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Curve: bouncing back
female outfit called Scylla — ‘huge monster riffs‘. she recalls. fondly — for one enjoyable tour before they mutually agreed that her voice was wrong for the kind of music they were playing. and contributed lyrics and vocals to the track ‘Original‘ on Leftfield's Leftism album in I995. Then. last year. oyer one of their chummy cuppas. Garcia. who had worked unceasingly iii his home studio since the split and had shelyes full of DAT tapes to show for it. unyeiled his latest composition and invited l-lalliday to sing over it. That one song led to roughly another fifteen oyer the next six weeks. Garcia digging deep into his stockpile of tracks for suitable material. The first person they took it to. Doug Morris. head of the
Uniyersal record label. jumped at the chance of
releasing it. Thus we have the new album. ('mm' Clean. which arguably displays Curve in a nastier mode than eyer before. It's oppressive. claustrophobic. relentless. menacing . . . but what drives them to make music like that'.’
‘Oh. God!' Halliday snorts. confessing guilt on all counts. ‘That kind of sound is what we wanted to get. because we wanted to make a document of London in 1008 — what it‘s like to be here. which is yery claustrophobic and oppt'essiye. and there‘s a lot of exciting stuff going on all the time. So it‘s becoming clogged tip with a lot of things that are really great. and it‘s become harder and harder. The ante‘s being upped all the time to produce really good stuff. because there are 5() million people behind you who are all doing really good things. I don‘t know where it comes from. to have that kind of sound. but it‘s something we. really respond to. I know it’s a fucked concept. but it does make us feel really good. that kind of all-eneompassing. intense expenencef
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Curve play King Tut's, Glasgow on Monday 25 May.
"—3523!
preview MUSIC
Bigmouth
More drugs, swearing and bad sex from the stars.
'Our first trip to San Francisco we were like “Boy, we gotta do some speed." I just could not come back off that stuff. Later on — liquid codeine, dog valium, some night time Benedril — and we still didn’t sleep.’
Burr;- (r.*.t"-s' .3 huge debt of ;7r.t.'t.'t.'t."-J I” 5' .51:f.'rin(}..t.‘/nt‘tnls ISSSt/e for their wafer/til set’et tron of Ot/t/aqrmr/s quotes from the Dandy Vt/(iV/‘vti/s‘
’Creation is what it always was. A label of misfits, drug addicts, dysfunctional human beings and out and out losers.’
Alan Mt Goo head of Creation, Ill an infret.‘t/ctt;w7 to the lobe/’5 newsletter ’Portland’s not a big town. So you have to make your own fun - shaving each other's pubes, running laughing and naked through supermarkets.’
in .‘.’. C ’tf‘w kevbnart,’ player, recOt/nts another day Hi the We of (fit: Dandy ‘."I.v’ar.’. 0/5
'The point is that if you don’t like a record then you should just say so. You shouldn’t just say that the singer stinks of piss, because there's a lot of kids out there now who think that I stink of piss.’ Sté‘t/v‘yn's RM k Hatter romp/a/ns to {We N’ME 0‘ (mother mung/rig at the f?.)/‘.’.'". m‘ the (.".}Sit?."'t'}l."l' press
'The decision among the members is mutual, and there will be no pointing of fingers, no naming of names, other than stating, for the record, that Puffy started it.’
Ruth M) Mew announce their break-- I,‘,'. titth '.‘() more than the necessary 21:41:)!”
’Today the California State Lottery is up to $80 million. I hope my girlfriend wins it. If she doesn't win, I hope she finds a paper bag full of money. And if neither of those happen, then I hope at least my record recoups. I don’t wanna go back to my last job.’
{mark Flirt no the «financial rock 'n'
111—28 May 1998 THE usr 41