The Cure

The Cure formed in Crawley, England in 1976, led by Robert Smith whose guitar tone became one of the most recognizable in alternative music. Smith's signature sound relies heavily on chorus and flanger pedals run through clean amplifiers, producing a shimmering, liquid quality that influenced dream pop and shoegaze. The Boss BF-2 flanger and Boss CE-2 chorus became so associated with his playing that they are often called essential Cure pedals. The band's catalog spans gloomy post-punk, pop singles, and sprawling atmospheric compositions, with albums like Disintegration combining all three into a reverb-drenched masterpiece. Smith's use of the Fender Bass VI on recordings added a distinctive low-end texture. The Cure's influence on effects-heavy guitar music is difficult to overstate, providing a bridge between post-punk and the shoegaze movement.