Somehow, despite my constant digging and delving into the annals of pop music history, I am still discovering seminal releases, even in my favorite subgenres and eras. When I first heard “Horror Head” in the shoegaze subreddit a few weeks ago, I thought it was a recent release until I dug deeper and found out that Curve were members of the original late 80s/early 90s British scene that birthed Lush, Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive…you know.
But unlike their peers, Curve got much cozier to electronic influences like dancepop and industrial. The massive walls of guitars are paired with drum machines, samples, and Toni Halladay’s lovely melodicism, creating a genre chimera that transcends its era.
When Punk exploded in 1977, the dam burst so hard it left a crater. It didn’t take very long for the maelstrom of no-frills sonic intensity to suck up other elements. Post-punk emerged almost immediately, deconstructing punk into unrecognizable shapes. Post-punk in turn splintered into its own series of subgenres—most notably, new wave and gothic rock.
If it accomplished nothing else, God, Get Me the F*** Out of Here proved that shoegaze and hip hop aren’t entirely without overlap. Cold Gawd plugged their reverb pedals into their fuzz boxes and played with the spirit of hip hop. Only two years later, the SoCal outfit is back with a record that turns that concept up to eleven.
