Curses NEXT WAVE ACID PUNX TROIS
(3CD)

Starting in 2021 the critically acclaimed Next Wave Acid Punx series has seen Luca Venezia, aka Curses, celebrate the music that has shaped both his life and career. Across the first two compilations Luca took us from the industrial and post-punk sounds of the late 70s, through the emergence of EBM, new beat and freestyle in the 1980s and onto the music he both makes and plays himself in clubs today. Bringing the series to a close Next Wave Acid Punx TROIS sees the Berlin-based musician and DJ return full circle, this time exploring the sounds that first initiated him into Brooklyn's rave scene and the music that, in some way, continues to embody its eclectic spirit today.

Spread across three 2LPs and 3CDs Next Wave Acid Punx TROIS captures a moment whose influence can still be heard reverberating around clubland today. With the nascent rave scene obliterating boundaries, this was a moment where the darker, harder industrial electronic sounds of the mid 1980s were crashing headfirst into the ecstatic wave that was washing over clubland creating thrilling juxtapositions. Whether in the clubs and warehouses of New York, London, Frankfurt, Valencia and beyond, electronic music would never be the same again as countless new genres we take for granted today were born from the chaos and energy that had been unleashed.

Featuring 46 hard-to-find, new and exclusive tracks, Next Wave Acid Punx TROIS both documents that fertile period and shows how, despite rumours to the contrary, that early anarchic spirit can still be found today. From the Detroit Techno of Model 500 to Nitzer Ebb's EBM and the proto-Trance of Age of Love and onto brand new tracks from some of today's best producers such as Zaatar, Italo Deviance and Leona Jacewska, this compilation closes out a series that has to date revelled in exploring the darker corners of clubland in uplifting style.

"Back in 2021 I started this series looking through my record collection, pulling out the music that had emerged from the punk and new wave scenes as they'd embraced electronics, and whose DNA had threaded its way throughout my own musical career. Emerging from lockdown then the second compilation, DEUX, had been a celebration of live music, and the important role bands had been to club culture over the years.

For TROIS though I wanted to take things full circle, return to my roots, and celebrate what first got me into electronic music. For that I had to go back to my first naive exposure to electronic music from before I was even DJing and the music I encountered in the early 90s at places like Metropolis in Queens, NASA/Scotto's many Manhattan parties, or dancing to legends like Frankie Bones and Heather Heart in Brooklyn.

But above all what hooked me was the music. At these parties you'd hear all these different genres being played together. I remember my first time at a rave I gravitated towards the hardcore/speedcore/gabber room because they had proper mosh pits. Coming from a punk background that made sense to me, but I soon realised there was so much more to it than that and wanted to hear all this other music, music made in Detroit and Frankfurt and Belgium, tracks that were filled with these euphoric, beautiful mind-opening pads and trance arpeggios. Producers like Frankie Bones, who was obviously playing Techno but then he was mixing in a lot of break beats as well, to this day I still play his "bones breaks" releases. Drum & Bass, ambient, techno, trance all under one roof, these parties were a gateway to so many different sub-genres of electronic music.

You hear that moment captured in something like Megabeat's Laura Palmer track, everything Megabeat/Interfront was so impactful and ahead of its time. It's got those EBM sounds mixed with breakbeats and progressive synths. Added to that there's this punk approach of sampling movies or TV news broadcasts. Likewise something like Model 500's Testing 1-2, everyone knows the impact Detroit had on electronic music, but this is Juan Atkins at his rawest, pure DIY energy, sounding punk and experimental whilst at the same time still groovy and danceable. And that's something a lot of these tracks share, despite a lot of them having their roots in EBM and industrial music it's not all just very groovy, but there's also a positive energy there.

Whether it was the raves I was going to in New York, warehouse parties in London, Frankfurt clubs or scenes like Valencia's La Ruta Del Bakalao, so much was happening in such a short space of time all across the world. New sounds, new ideas and new genres being created each week. A beautiful chaotic mess that for an all too brief moment captured the spirit of the times, the sense of freedom. After many years where things became too segregated, musical genres siloed off, that spirit of openness is something I've started to notice again.

It's become much less unusual now to hear really happy Italo tracks being mixed into dark EBM records and I've tried to capture that feeling with many of the new songs on the compilation, tracks like Digitalism's Into The Club, an uplifting, ravey track which taps into a little bit of the break beat sound, Leona Jacewska's I Need Another Excuse that has more of this uplifting, Italo influence to it and my own Crown of Ruin that throws these big uplifting melodic synths up against more aggressive drums and vocals. Even an artist like Andi, who was once associated with more industrial and EBM sounds has produced something more uplifting here with her collab with Kendal, Still Human.

Looking back now over the three compilations in this series, this is all music that hasimpacted me so much as a musician and producer over the years and I just wanted it to do the same for others. A lot of it has never had the attention it deserves, and so a huge thanks to all the artists whose music we've featured and Nadiem and Eskimo for their hard work to track these people down. Another big thank you to John, who turned my notes and anecdotes into a trilogy worth reading. Over the past couple of years I've had several people come up to me to say that hearing these compilations has changed their life. That's so exciting, because who knows what kind of music they'll now go and make inspired by them, music that will keep this spirit alive, perhaps foster new scenes and perhaps, in turn, one day go on to inspire others."

Luca Venezia - Berlin, February 2026[info sheet from distr.]