Luca Venezia has been busy, living a dual life as both Drop The Lime and Curses!
Its hard to be a superhero, but he’s holding it down.
Last week, Trouble & Bass and the Cut Crew showed Brooklyn that they have outgrown the 100 cap Boogaloo, and were in fact Masters of the Universe, as they took over Studio B for a full on Rave.

Moby, Curses! (live) and Knifehandchop owned.

More madness to ensue this weekend, catch Luca if you can . . .

Friday, May 11th, Slap You In Public present the Institubes Terror Club:

And Saturday May 12th, Toronto, Rinse presents Drop The Lime with Sek One and Dougie Boom

EXTENDED PLAY - EYE WEEKLY, Toronto

With Denise Benson

DROP THE LIME (a.k.a. CURSES!) at CURB CRAWLERS with Sek One and Dougie Boom. Sat, May 12. Crosstown, 178 Bathurst. $10 before midnight.

“When I was seven, my dream was to be like Ritchie Valens.”

Hero worship of the 1950s smooth-voiced Latino rock ‘n’ roll star best known for “La Bamba” is not what I expected from bass ‘n’ noise producer Luca Venezia. It turns out that the 25-year-old New Yorker is full of surprises. Raised in Manhattan by visual artist parents, the man who would become Drop the Lime studied jazz guitar from the age of seven, had a penchant for Fugazi, Brian Eno, Kraut and prog rock as a teen, and has always had a soft spot for crooners.

It’s a bit of a musical leap to the frenetic breakcore of Drop the Lime’s first bunch of records, but once Venezia heard a tape of British drum ‘n’ bass pioneer DJ Hype’s pirate radio show, he holed up with a keyboard, drum machine and four-track recorder to make twisted techno, drum ‘n’ bass and breaks.

“I got really into all the fills and edits of jungle and drum ‘n’ bass, like when the shaker sound or snare roll happens,” he recalls. “I think that’s why my early production ended up being considered breakcore. I wanted the whole song to sound like that – everything all crazy!”

His first EP Sweet Desire dropped on adventurous British indie label Ambush in 2003 and led to other offers. Kid606’s Tigerbeat6 has been Venezia’s main base since 2004, releasing a series of Drop the Lime EPs and two full CDs. Through them, Venezia diversified his sound and grew greatly as a producer.

“I think I busted out of breakcore because it was all sounding too much alike, and I was done with it,” he states. “I did as much as I could have done. Bass is my thing now – strong, nasty, out-of-control basslines – and I want to keep people dancing. I just want to keep on pushing the sound of dance music, and make things bigger.”

Venezia has shown an uncanny ability to evolve quickly as he develops his “bigger” sound. He’s constantly at the crest of the curve, always in sync with the approaching wave. As a DJ, he’s been deeply into dubstep and grime, bringing UK acts to his club nights Bangers & Mash and Trouble & Bass. As a producer, he’s veered more towards the four-to-the-floor, bass-crazed, distorted ‘n’ mashed punk house being pushed by producers such as Switch, as well as French labels including Ed Banger or Kitsune.

It’s fitting then that Venezia’s next big release, serving as an introduction to his Curses! alias, will drop on Parisian imprint Institubes.

“The Curses! thing has its own sound,” enthuses Venezia. “It’s a bit slower, has vocals, and is spooky, kinda disco-like haunted house. There’s a bit of a dancehall sound, but I’d have to say that Chicago house is the biggest influence on it.”

Like many of his contemporaries who were raised on rave and have been discovering its roots in Detroit techno and Chicago acid and house, Venezia is currently enthralled with much of the electronic music that came out of the Windy City in the mid to late ’80s. We’ll hear it in his mix as Venezia blends all from acid to dubstep, old school jungle, happy hardcore, his originals – complete with live vocals – and more this Saturday at Curb Crawlers.

Whether playing here, on home turf or in UK clubs like Fabric, he’s feeling free to play what he loves.

“These days, people are definitely feeling dance music again. I don’t necessarily agree with the whole nu rave scene that’s popped up in London, but I do think that it helped wake people back up to hard dance music. Stuff like Digitalism, Klaxons, Boys Noize, Justice and the other Ed Banger stuff came out and people got it. ‘This distortion sounds like a guitar! I can dance to this!’ And then the light shone on Daft Punk and old-school rave again, and old-school house, too.”

Venezia is mad animated as he completes his thought.

“Chicago house and acid is about to blow up again, like really, really big. I feel it, and I’m hearing the influence around with other producers and DJs. Even the hipsters just out for drinks are starting to wake up to it.”

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