the triumphant return of Curve
Aug 27 '01 (Updated Sep 04 '01)
The Bottom Line Open Day At The Hate Fest is (mostly) new music by one of the world's most underrated bands that you won't find in stores; seek it out today!
Remember how it felt the first time you got connected to the World Wide Web? I sure do. It was like I was a kid again, set loose in a toy store, awed at the staggering amount of stuff on display for me to look at, listen to, and play with. I spent close to four hours online that first session, searching and surfing and clicking in a dreamy state of bliss. “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” was my initial reaction, shortly followed by “Man, there’s even more porn out there than people say there is!”
Besides nude photos of Jenna Jameson and book reviews from Amazon.com, the Net is also a great source for music. Through messageboards, newsgroups, and file-sharing programs like Napster, I’ve been able to trade for and download songs I’ve sought out for years: the original mix of Garbage’s “#1 Crush,” the single version of Mick Jagger’s “Hard Woman,” the Prince-penned “Mia Boca” by Jill Jones, and the Salieri mix of Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus,” plus dozens of b-sides, rarities, and live tracks by Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, the Black Crowes, Fatboy Slim, Weezer, and The Crystal Method. Like Robert Smith of the Cure once said, music is not merely important - it’s essential.
Lots of bands quickly realized the Net’s potential to forge a stronger bond with their audience and to allow more of their music to be heard than had previously been permitted by the miserly practices of the record companies, most of which adhere to the unwritten ‘one new album every two years and no more’ rule as if it were the Eleventh Commandment. Many artists - including Hole, the Offspring, Public Enemy, the Supersuckers, and the Beastie Boys - began offering free songs on their websites, which put them in the cool book of millions of appreciative fans. The Smashing Pumpkins went one better by posting their final double album Machina II: Friends And Enemies Of Modern Music - some 25 songs! - in mp3 form and encouraging people to spread it around the globe. The opportunity to listen to music I might not otherwise get to hear is, I feel, one of the Net’s greatest gifts.
British band Curve have amassed a huge following since they first appeared over ten years ago, though with easily-digestible, multi-platinum entertainers like Janet Jackson and Jennifer Lopez and controversial troublemakers like Eminem and Ol’ Dirty Bastard sucking up most of the radio time and newsprint, their success has largely remained below the radar. Loyalty to the band is exceptionally fierce, however, and so disappointment and sympathy were expressed in spades when founders Toni Halliday and Dean Garcia announced late last year that the new album they had hoped to release was being shelved due to a lack of support and interest on the part of Universal/Estupendo, their record company. Things had actually begun to go sour several years before; Garcia felt that promotion for their “Chinese Burn” single and the subsequent album Come Clean was extremely poor, costing them vital airplay and record sales. To add insult to injury, the new disc was contractually owned by Universal/Estupendo and Curve was therefore unable to release it on another label.
Disillusioned and frustrated, they abandoned the entire mess and started again from scratch, and fans were soon rewarded for their devotion with a handful of free mp3s from the band’s official homepage. As gratitude and enthusiasm over this display of largesse swelled, Curve made plans for a compilation that would only be available for purchase through their website, effectively cutting out the middleman and sparing themselves further legal hassles.
The result is Open Day At The Hate Fest, which includes six of the aforementioned mp3s in improved sound quality, one previously released song, and three brand new ones. A journey through Curve’s somber, experimental side, it is not a proper release but rather a tasty snack to tide over fans during the interim, similar to Guns N’ Roses Lies EP, Marilyn Manson’s Smells Like Children, or Beck’s Mutations.
Longtime fans will recognize the first cut “Nowhere” since it was originally released on the soundtrack for Greg Araki’s film of the same name back in 1997. Halliday spins a spooky tale of netherworldly calamity and ruin, sounding like one of the witches in the opening scene of Macbeth: “While the angel sleeps, the rest are nowhere to be found/While the wicked speak, the devil’s nowhere.” The post-apocalyptic imagery carries over into “The Birds They Do Fly” in which Halliday dreamwalks through a ravaged landscape searching desperately for signs of life. “In an endless stream,” she sings, with the eerie calm of a shell-shocked nuclear war survivor, “I came across no one.” Maybe Curve didn’t intend for this CD to be more than a grab bag of treats, but that doesn’t mean they’re about to coast on their reputation; they mean business.
“Ché,” the first of the previously unreleased songs, takes a hard look at the push-and-pull dynamics of a dysfunctional relationship and declares it poisonous: “You want to hurt me, to make me feel what you feel/You want to tear me, till I bleed at the seam.” Similarly, “Backwards Glance” walks proudly away from a failed romance after taking an ex-lover to task for his selfish ways. “It’s a ruse of yours to spoil perfection/Manipulate a violent situation for your own good.” The swirling, churning “Storm” adopts a more benevolent tone, with Halliday offering advice to the younger generation as the approaching tempest of adulthood draws near. “See my mistakes,” she sings quietly, sounding a thousand years old, “don’t become me.”
Dean Garcia and longtime collaborator Alan Moulder (Halliday’s husband) offer resounding proof of their own that the time spent entangled in red tape had no detrimental effect on their musical abilities. On its surface, the leisurely “Speedcrash” would appear to be the least exciting song on the album, yet repeated listenings reveal dense sonic layers that will only deepen your appreciation of their composing skills. “Caught In The Alleyway” arguably has the fastest tempo of all, though it does not have the powerful bang n’ crunch sound of past tunes like “Missing Link” and “On The Wheel.” Garcia and Moulder instead substitute a fragile, pulsating rhythm that brings to mind flashing police car lights and racing heartbeats, mirroring the narrator’s sorry, screwed-up life.
“You Don’t Know” oscillates between compassion and pity and is a fine showcase for Halliday’s impressive vocal range. The version of “Turnaround” included here is slightly shorter than the one that was posted on the website, though the song’s hypnotic effect will leave you too spellbound to notice. Yet it is the title track which proves most memorable, a nightmarish tour de force running over seven minutes in length and a listening experience akin to stumbling through a haunted castle as the voices of the dead call out from every room. “Lola, Lola, Lola” is whispered as if by the ghost of a young girl summoning a relative while another malevolent spirit repeatedly barks orders and hisses, “I will shout and you will hear me.” Possibly the band’s most bizarre creation, the chances of it seeing the light of day on a commercial release would have been slim to none. That Curve took matters into their own hands to bless us with this riveting fright-fest is another reason to tip our hats to them.
It must be repeated that Open Day At The Hate Fest is a Web-only compilation intended primarily for longtime fans and should not be judged by the same criteria used to evaluate a proper album. The stylistic and thematic diversity of Doppelgänger and Cuckoo is not as broad here, with the majority of the album set to a slower tempo and exploring darker subject matter. Newbies should first become familiar with similar songs from Curve’s earlier work like “The Colour Hurts” off Pubic Fruit or “Triumph” from BlackerThreeTracker before immersing themselves in this CD.
Curve later announced with much joy and relief that Universal/ Estupendo had finally secured a U.S. release for the suspended album. Fittingly titled Gift, the new disc should be in record stores by September. I, like millions of other fans, can’t wait.
NOTE: Some of the free mp3s that were posted - among them the original version of "Turnaround" and a cover of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “Overground” - were not included on Open Day At The Hate Fest and are not slated to appear on Gift. If you want to hear these tunes (and why wouldn’t you?) I suggest you log on to the band’s website at www.curve.co.uk, check the messageboards, and see if you can set up a trade with someone. The Internet’s not going anywhere, so you might as well use it for worthwhile pursuits. Your hard drive has more than enough porn on it already, don’t you think?
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