We’re pretty sure you’ll enjoy this one. Here’s a few words from Optimo (Espacio)‘s JD Twitch on the latest podcast:

In the late 80s as house music exploded across the UK British producers started to take the new electronic strains coming out of the United States and added their own distinctive British twist to them. Artists such as Bang The Party, No Smoke, Baby Ford, Renegade Soundwave and A Guy Called Gerald amongst many others were releasing distinctive records that worked on the dance floor as effectively as anything coming out of Chicago, New York or Detroit. Then there was Unique 3. From Bradford, they were arguably the first UK act to really bring the BASS and in particular the sub bass to UK electronic music in a way that it hadn’t featured before. Britain’s deep affinity with reggae and the exposure of many to severely bass heavy reggae sound systems meant it was an inevitability that bass was going to become a distinctive factor and Unique 3′s huge (and sadly somewhat forgotten) influence on what came out of the UK cannot be understated: hardcore, drum and bass, dubstep and current UK Bass variants all owe something to Unique 3′s bassprints, several of which are included on this podcast. (The earliest, The Theme, dates back to 1989 and still sounds fresh 22 years later.)

In their wake, from the north of England came Warp Records and the wave of Sheffield Bass, or Bass and Bleep records (or whatever you want to call them) that begat a thousand imitators. Once again an often overlooked character is majorly responsible for so much of this music – the mighty Rob Gordon (co founder of Warp and remixer and producer extraordinaire), whom to me is as important a figure in dance music history as any legend one may care to mention. These records had a massive impact on myself and my then dj partner Brainstorm. We were obsessed with bleeps and bass and these futuristic sounds that sounded unlike anything else, especially when blasting out of a huge sound system. We were very fortunate that our club night UFO, which soon morphed into Pure, had possibly the most powerful system in the country. When the bass drop in LFO’s “LFO” came in the whole building would quiver and the music would be drowned out by shrieks and screams of delight. Records by Nightmares On Wax, Sweet Exorcist, Juno, XON and a legion of others will be with me as long as I live, and should so many years of sonic abuse one day render my hearing kaput, it’s slightly reassuring to know that I’ll always be able to FEEL the power of them as they shift masses of air through speakers with their sub bass and low frequency oscillations.

Over the ensuing years I’ve followed all strains of UK dance music with various degrees of interest. The last couple of years have been deeply satisfying as records that come from the same mould as that golden 1989 – 91 era (but with a sound inherently modern rather than trying to recreate the past – something so much modern dance music is guilty of) have become more prominent. Artist such as Ramadanman in his various guises, Julio Bashmore and a host of others have brought back the bass, syncopated rhythms and sometimes the bleeps at a manageably groovesome tempo that is sexier, sonically more interesting and more powerful, to my ears, than a zillion unimaginative and derivative deep house or minimal clones. They are pushing boundaries which for me is what electronic music was always meant to do and was one of thee main, but often long undelivered promises of techno. This mix is 40 tracks of UK Bass music past, present and future (there are actually two non British tracks included. A prize to anyone who spots them) and is a distinctively British sound that in its original form didn’t really translate outside the UK, though its mutant offspring have gone on to reverberate around the globe. Old and new sit side by side all (imo) sharing some dna, intentional or otherwise with those Unique 3 records that first lit up my ears 22 years ago. Here’s to the next 22 years of UK dance hybrids!

Once again we aren’t making a tracklisting available for the podcast but if you want to know what anything is, feel free to get in touch and we will let you know. Nearly all the music contained here is from vinyl records so any audio imperfections are a result of the age and wear of the records; many of the older 12″s on here received a LOT of club abuse.

optimo.co.uk

Here’s the second of our three live Riverboat Shuffle DJ sets from Friday 6 August’s after-party at Glasgow’s legendary Sub Club. This mix comes courtesy of one half of Optimo (Espacio) and the recently established Hung Up club night and one of the most respected DJs in the UK, JG Wilkes.

Andrew Pirie from Melting Pot’s session next week. All three are great live sets recorded on a particularly busy and sweaty Friday evening at the club. Check out last week’s mix from Melting Pot’s Simon Cordiner.

Also have a look at out our friend’s at EQTV’s video of the actual Waverley party in full swing as well. It was a lot of fun as you’ll see.

You can win tickets for the Rizla Riverboat Shuffle on the Thames on Radio Magnetic too. Appearing at that boat party on Friday 8 October are Melting Pot, Optimo (Espacio),  LowLife DJs and Greg Wilson, with an after party at Shoreditch’s C.A.M.P. venue.

Should be another good un’. Get involved party people.

Wilkes joins Billy Woods at the next STUDIO WAREHOUSE SUPERMAX at Glasgow’s SWG3 on Saturday 11 September too for an evening of electronic music and fashion.

The forthcoming three Sunday evenings at Hung Up at the Sub Club feature JD Twitch flying solo, JG Wilkes all night long and then Twitch and recent Kompakt signings, Walls on Sunday 26 September. We recommend all three.

rizla.co.uk
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meltingpotglasgow.com
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Here’s what they both had to say to our mates at Fabric about the legendary club night they started back in 1997.

JD Twitch:

“I’d been doing Pure for a few years and I was a little bit bored. It was the late 90s and the whole club scene had got a little bit boring for me, all my friends were bored, we’d all stopped going out. This opportunity came up to do the Sunday night at a club in Glasgow. The owners of The Sub Club had said they were happy for me to do whatever I wanted – so i took the opportunity to literally delve into my record collection and play all the music I’d never really played in a DJ set that I thought might just work on a dancefloor. So I started this night and I asked Johnnie to play with me; I didn’t know him very well but I knew that he had a similar interest in different types of music. And I knew he had an anarchic spirit, which is kind of what I wanted the night to be. Plus he had a lot of friends, and I thought if he’s doing it maybe a lot of his friends would come along too. It was really a private party for all our friends for the first year or so. The first year, almost 80 people per week would come and we’d know almost all of them, and that was fine. We had no plan, no ambition for the night, it was just a kind of outlet for us to do something fun for us.

After doing it for about a year, I think word must have got out and it suddenly became very popular, literally from one week to the next, 75 people one week and the next week it was packed. It just kind of stayed like that; it was almost just like people suddenly got it. It’s the people that made it and we were very fortunate that we got a really great crowd of people that came along, because the music was really quite different to what people were used to and quite all over the place. And because it was on a Sunday you had to make an effort to go, so the people that came really wanted to be there.”

JG Wilkes:

“I remember meeting Keith a long time ago. I used to play at a techno night in Glasgow in the mid-90s on a Saturday but I used to get Friday nights off all the time. I wasn’t travelling as a DJ at the time, I was just kind of DJing around Glasgow, and Keith did a club in Edinburgh called Pure. Pure was the first club Britain to bring people like Richie Hawtin and Carl Craig and artists like that. We used to go through on the bus from Glasgow. That’s when I first met Keith, on the bus going to Pure. It’s quite hard to remember a lot of the stuff that happened back then, for obvious reasons. I think in 1996, we did some parties together in Glasgow which were big parties with various rooms and lots of different elements to them – that was quite unusual at the time because the mid-90s weren’t a good time for techno, it was going into a corner a little bit. There were a lot of manly guys going to clubs and there was a bit of an aggressive atmosphere, and the music wasn’t developing particularly well in my opinion. We were thinking already at that point, ‘Let’s put something together that’s a bit more fun to do.’ We did these parties, a few one-offs, that brought live elements to it, some bands and different people playing in different rooms, and it was kind a more colourful experience, I suppose. And it was the year after that Optimo started, 1997.”

You will be missed but fondly remembered by thousands and thousands at home and far further afield Optimo (Espacio). You loved our ears. We salute yours. Thanks and go carefully.

Tracklist

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optimo.co.uk

We often do long drives through the night to our gigs in UK and when abroad we’re regularly car passengers driving between cities or to and from airports.

A lot of this time we’re running late, tired, stressed, staring vacantly out the window stuck in traffic or if we’re lucky, asleep. I thought it would be fun to podcast some tracks about cars and what they mean to us.

The mix is certainly not intended as a eulogy of the open road or a soundtrack to cruising the highway in search of your dreams. It’s not “driving” music, rather it’s a collection of favourite tracks and sounds about cars and driving. Clunk-Click every trip…

The mix contains 18 tracks and a few effects added for fun and lasts just under an hour. Enjoy.

optimo.co.uk
subclub.co.uk

Optimo return with their second podcast on Radio Magnetic. ‘Take a stroll through your mind’ is a selection of songs with a psychedelic feel from around the world. All of the music is from the late 1960s and early 70s (1967 – 1975) when psychedelic sounds spread to all corners of the globe. Go on, say yes to psychedelic excess.

There is something about the warmth and the tone of this music, especially that fuzz guitar that sends me into ecstasy.

It make me feel as if I am wrapped in cotton wool. While psychedelic music can often sound like a bunch of stoners making a freaked out racket, all of the songs here are exquisitely joyous, beautifully crafted pieces of music, often with ideas and production that still sounds ahead of the curve. Not all of these tracks are intentionally psychedelic, but all have that certain something that can transport one to another place and another time.

All the tracks were recorded from vinyl and in some cases the records aren’t in tip top condition or were fairly poor pressings to begin with (especially the African records), so apologies for the fidelity in a few places. Hopefully the wonder of the music still shines through.

Again we’re not making tracklists available for the podcast but if you want to know what anything is, feel free to get in touch and we’ll let you know. None of the tracks are mixed but all are segued together.

In order, the tracks are from the following countries – USA / Zambia / USA / USA / USA / UK / Algeria / Egypt / Brazil / Nigeria / Mexico / Mexico / USA

The mix contains 13 tracks and lasts approximately 69 minutes. Enjoy.

optimo.co.uk
subclub.co.uk

Welcome to the first of our monthly podcasts from Optimo. The Sub Club’s legendary Sunday night party where you’ve gotta say yes to another excess and you probably wont like it sugar. Optimo, established on Sunday November 28th 1997, is undoubtedly one of the most forward thinking and respected club nights in the world and we are, quite frankly, over the moon to present Twitch and Wilkes’s monthly podcast on Radio Magnetic.

This podcast, produced by JG Wilkes, is called “(All this talk of Disco…) The Jerking Back and Forth Mix”. The title (part-borrowed from a from a Devo song) is an indication of the type of involuntary body responses provoked whilst enjoying these songs as well as the sound itself.

The new stuff and the old stuff, the local stuff and the stuff from very far afield is united here through a kind of “loose is tight” jerking rhythm and DIY spirit we love. Although all tracks are at their original tempo and of course not “mixed” as such, there is however some kind of a flow (be it a “jerking” one) to the podcast. There is no tracklist but if anyone really wants to know what a particular track is, we will be happy to tell them.

Collected over the past 30 years or so, none of the music is (that) hard to find. The podcast was recorded using turntables, then the levels balanced here and there in Protools. The mix contains 20 tracks and lasts just under an hour.

optimo.co.uk
subclub.co.uk