Curve – Cuckoo

Influential indie rock/electronic crossover outfit Curve’s second album was released by Anxious Records in September 1993. Co-produced by the band, Flood and Steve Osborne, it spawned two singles / EPs, Blackerthreetracker (the lead track being the aggressive, hook-laden ‘Missing Link’) and the loping Superblaster, and although it wasn’t as successful as their debut Doppelgänger in terms of chart performance, it was well received by the press, with particular praise for Toni Halliday’s powerful vocals and thoughtful lyrics as well as the lush but abrasive backing that was aptly described as falling somewhere between Ministry and the Sugarcubes.

In common with Doppelgänger, there are walls of searing guitar noise and pounding rhythms, but some of the tracks are softer and more reflective. As Paul Simpson put it on allmusic.com: “The synthesisers on ‘Crystal’ and ‘Unreadable Communication’ are close to the then-developing trance style, and the slower songs anticipate the direction Massive Attack (and others) would take during the course of the decade.” Praise indeed.

Format – LP