Curve
Pubic Fruit

THE REVIEW

"Pubic Fruit" is the union of the first three LPs by Curve, the band/duo formed by Dean Garcia and Tony Halliday. After the success of their first work "Doppelgänger" in the same year, '92, this album-compilation was released, containing their first experiments from '91 that allowed the duo to continue their (brief) career. It starts with "The Blindfold EP" and it's already a real surprise to come into contact with four musical tracks so different from each other, ranging from rock, to grunge, to electronic, powerful bass lines (sometimes annoying); and so, between one composition and another, the memory and desire to continue the alternative dream-pop wave very much in vogue at that time resonate, contaminated with some rap choruses ("Ten Little Girls"), sometimes rock ("I Speak Your Every Word"), the spoken word at times imperceptible ("Blindfold", in my opinion one of the best tracks), the electronic ("No Escape From Heaven").

The journey continues with "The Frozen EP," and the title itself is already a program (if we exclude the explosive charge of "Coast is Clear"): presence of much darker, slower tracks, sometimes echoing pain, a nightmare, other times something coming from tribes ("Zoo"). The sound remains fairly personal and is listenable. In fact, the flaw in Curve's albums has often been their desire to overdo it, baffling the listener, sinning with presumption in the Shoegaze genre, thereby losing much of the little success they had garnered, also giving other bands the opportunity to reap what they had sown, with the result, no longer achieved, of winning back their fans who were increasingly disappointed with each album.

But the Curve of "Pubic Fruit" are instead intact, and despite their sometimes so different experiments, they really have the power to make you escape reality and immerse yourself in a strange, electronic, spatial, ethereal atmosphere. It continues indeed with the last EP "The Cherry EP": "Clipped" (later included in "Doppelgänger") prepares us for the journey we will gradually undertake, passing through "Die Like A Dog" in which the voice becomes increasingly thin, making way for a true cacophony of sounds; it's time for the first stop on this imaginative tour with "Galaxy", where distant sounds are wisely mixed together, never compromising the electronic vein. Credit and perhaps more than credit goes to the title track ("Cherry"), deserving all my compliments for the extraordinary power and versatility with which the transition from almost deliberate whispering to true unleashed violence takes place, which seems to make surreal images flow through your mind, composing themselves before your eyes as the sonic barrier is broken, leaving you breathless. A shiver runs through me and it's almost magic. The last track, "Faît Accompli", here present in "Extended Mix," adds nothing to the version already present in their first work.

A mix of well-selected ingredients for the entrance into the alternative scene of this group. It's a pity for their future choices and for the departure from this genre (perhaps a bit too overused). Nevertheless, they deserve a listen and it would certainly please someone that they are still musically active, perhaps with something that approaches and continues with their beginnings.