Curses is a one man outfit based in Berlin, an 80s obsessive with a chilly New Wave/ post- punk sound, all urgency and paranoia, some Cold War dread along with some tough beats beamed in from Belgian New Beat or early acid house. A few years ago his cover version of The The's This Is The Day pricked my ears up, powered by a Hooky- esque bassline that you could dredge a canal with, some bleepy toplines and a vocal that always seems to me like he slightly misses his cue for the first line but makes it work anyway.
Last year Curses released a song on Dischi Autunno with vocals from Cici, a sparse, rhythmic, iced tribute to Italian actress and photojournalist Gina Lollobrigada.
Gina was a high profile international star in the 1950s and 60s and has lived quite the life and aged 94 is still with us, the last of the superstars of the silver screen. She starred alongside Humphrey Bogart in Beat The Devil and Crossed Swords with Errol Flynn as well as films with Yul Brynner, Ernst Borgnine, Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.
Curses has a new album out this month, Incarnadine, more pumped up dark disco and post- punk that sound like they've been mainlined straight from a Berlin of the 1920s/ 1980s transplanted into now. You can buy it here. If you dig around his Bandcamp site you'll also find a thirty eight track compilation album called Next Wave Acid Punx that explains everything, from Gina X to Yello and all points in between.
photojournalist you say?
ReplyDeleteYes indeed- from wiki 'By the end of the 1970s, Lollobrigida had embarked on what she developed as a successful second career as a photographic journalist. She photographed, among others, Paul Newman, Salvador Dalí, Henry Kissinger, David Cassidy, Audrey Hepburn, Ella Fitzgerald, and the German national football team. She even managed to obtain an exclusive interview with Fidel Castro, leader of Communist Cuba. In 1973, a collection of her work was published under the title Italia Mia'
ReplyDeleteThis is very true! In the 80s, if she showed up at a premiere or awards event in LA or NYC she was known to walk over to the photographer ropes and chat with a few of them.
ReplyDeleteFascinating post as usual, Adam. Is this Curses the same artist that the dear Mr Weatherall championed, who played at Carcassonne and released records on Hoga Nord?
ReplyDeleteYes Max, the same Curses. I'd forgotten he played Convenanza.
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