Los Angeles, Cleopatra: Danish industrial powerhouse Claus Larsen, aka Leæther Strip, and The Cure go back a long way.
A fan since the earliest days, Larsen was among the first acts to contribute to the 1997 tribute album 100 Tears (still available from Cleopatra Records on CD and purple spatter vinyl - https://cleorecs.com/products/100-tears-a-tribute-to-the-cure-purple-splatter-vinyl
"I've been a life long fan ever since their first single 'Killing An Arab," released in my teens, back when I was more into Punk and before I bought my first synth. Since then, no matter what they did and do, I love it, even the very poppy stuff. Robert Smith's words have also always inspired me. He's a master at creating inner pictures in my head. Not many lyrics have that effect on me."
On February 7, 2025, Leæther Strip returns to Robert Smith and co with his own impeccable and hard-hitting full-length tribute to the band’s seminal 1982 album Pornography, reinventing all eight of the goth classic’s dense and dramatically dark tracks - plus two special bonus Cure covers for the CD and digital formats!
The first single from the album, “One Hundred Years,” is also the collection’s opening track - as it was on Pornography itself - and, like the Cure’s original, it firmly sets out the parameters which guided Leæther Strip through the remainder of the collection.
SINGLE: https://orcd.co/ls_onehundredyears
It serves too as a reminder of just how startling Pornography sounded upon its original release.
It certainly occupies a very special place in Larsen's heart. "For me it's an iconic album. One of those albums that will always be played. It's darkness, it's pain with a tiny bit of hope in the music just move me deeply.
"I chose to pay tribute to that album in my way. I wanted to make the light and hope in the songs a bit clearer and, as I love to dance, some good beats to it. Many would say 'Don't touch that album,' but it's all done as a heartfelt tribute to an album that saved my ass in many ways, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. That album is for me the best 'Goth' album ever created."
Recapturing the sheer intensity of the original album, but amplifying it through the forty-plus years that have elapsed since itsl release, Leæther Strip’s reinterpretation of Pornography arrives at a time when The Cure’s personal stock has seldom been higher - indeed, their latest album, Songs of a Lost World has been described as their very best new release since Pornography itself.
Leæther Strip now raise Pornography even higher, with an album that impacts just as dramatically, and drives just as determinedly as the original. In fact, it’s hard to think of any single artist tribute to an individual album that so effortlessly recaptures, let alone elaborates upon, the mood of its model.
Track listing
- One Hundred Years
- A Short Term Effect
- The Hanging Garden
- Siamese Twins
- The Figurehead
- A Strange Day
- Cold
- Pornography
- A Forest (from 17 Seconds - bonus track)
- Fascination Street (from Disintegration - bonus track)
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/ls_tributetothecure
CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=le%C3%A6ther+strip+a+tribute+to+the+cure
