Running up to Record Store Day 2019: Part 2, the dark hinterland of Curve...

The mid 1990s, in retrospect, were quite a good moment for indie EP's.

One band who really seemed to embrace the 12" EP as a format were dark noise rock auteurs Curve.

Later on they would head firmly into the industrial dance end of gothic tinged indie, but in the early 1990s they were making full use of the smoke machine to shroud their particular brand of gothic indie rock.

The EP's they released between 1991 and 1992 reveal the band at their most post Cocteau Twins' esque ethereal (Cherry EP) as well as at their most despairing and self destructive (Frozen). With hindsight, it's easy to see that they were a band out of their time: Their particular brand of gothic machine rock wasn't really in vogue in 1991/2, and in fact a silkier, slicker and poppier version of it would be deployed to greater effect by Garbage a few years later. Similarly, the dancier element of their sound hadn't fully evolved so they weren't ready to dive headlong into EBM/Industrial dance either.

These four EP's are experiments in sound spiked by what can often be incredibly dark lyrics and intentions that can make them quite hard to listen to at times (hello 'Coast Is Clear'), but they are worth digging out and re-listening to, if only because they represent an intensity of purpose and experimentation with sound and technology that still makes for an exciting, if dark, listen.