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On one of 2023's Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX compilations Curses, the Berlin-based musician and DJ explored the darker side of club music. Bringing together 49 tracks that connected the dots between early industrial pioneers, EBM legends and post-punk bands with some of today's most exciting artists, it was a celebration of the kind of raw electronic music best performed live on smoky clubs.
One might suspect that between this and Next Wave's equally acclaimed and substantial first album Acid Punx, Clubland's gothic vaults might be eerily empty. But, as every good live act knows, you have to save something special for an encore, and that's why Curses are back with Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX - Secret Cuts, 11 bonus tracks that deserve their own moment in the strobe light.
Featuring the likes of Ghost Cop, Paresse, Nuovo Testament, You Man, plus a new Curses track and a Redux cover, Secret Cuts is a worthy companion piece, packed with jagged synths, pneumatic kick drums, tightly locked snares and punk attitude. This is a type of music producers, who, if there is one thing that characterizes them, is their irregularity, focused on their search for multiple unstable paths and who, weathering the storm, reaping successes and incorporating everything that experience offers them, emerge as if suddenly. with proposals as unique and surprising as his own personal career. They work attentively to detect when it is time to enter the studio with the artists to turn everything upside down...
This dizzying compilation moves with a progression of chords that are like serotonin bombs, and some melodic touches, which make a brilliant set. The tracks have strength and jump over the prevailing conventions, knowing how to avoid the most recurrent rawness and darkness, seeking dance but without predictable tricks and without exceeding an understandable level of experimentation suitable for the dance floor.
The level of production of these guys is intense but, on the other hand, the care of the sounds they release is at the level of those who do things because they want and with the time they really need. Hence, these are productions that, when you approach closely, you are caught by the halo that it gives off: rare, singular and, here comes the best, powerful, magnetic and danceable. Beats that make a statement but without burdening us, an oldschool (authentic) touch, somewhat eccentric synthesizers and a rather happy and festive general tone, are some of the adjectives that we can come up with if we want to describe this innovative proposal.
Each producer summarizes their intentions in this compilation, seeking novelty without losing nostalgia, playing with genre but without falling into predictable tricks, nor into the arrogance of those who cast themselves in a genre or mannerism to show that they have personality. To achieve simplicity and lucidity, paradoxically, experience and the ability to know how to free oneself from the limitations of conditioning are required, and this first compilation is a healthy example of this.
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