35°

https://robertbabicz.bandcamp.com/album/dirtcut-m

Acid Test

Glyn Maier - Psithurism [enmossed]
Mu Tate - Cicada Break [3 X L]
Promoter - Cogitate 2 [Patience / Impatience]
Pinkcourtesyphone - pre-sumptuous / post-sumptuous [Room40]
Best Available Technology - 605AM4262015c [Self Released]
Ghost Warrior - No Stream [re:st]
AyGeeTee & Actress Pets - Much Later Water [Kit Records]
Continuity - Infinite Lights [B.A.A.D.M]
Creation Rebel - Space Movement Section 1 [On-U Sound]
Monty Luke - Future Mystic [Rekids]
Nueen - I [3 X L]
COH - Faster Depth [Dais Records]
Gavsborg - Did Not Make this for Jah 9 (feat. Shanique Marie) [dispari]
Strategy - Heat [Community Library]
Dschen - Field of Uncertainty [Secuencias Temporales]
Kaspiann - Solina [Mantis]
Pablo's Eye - My Only Guide [Stroom]
Leeway - Rushcutter [Lost Domain] 
Daniel[i] - Chasm [Kizen Records]
Civilistjävel!  - Femton [YYAA]
Pan American - Running Dog (Reborn) [Foam On A Wave]
Zemog - Equal Vibrations (Dub Phasing) [Huinali Recordings]
Amandra - Lavanville [Nous'klear]
Tresque - Terapung-apung [-OUS]
Sub Basics - Network [Temple of Sound]
Intrepid Soul - Tribal Auditorium [Ritualism Records]
Ali Berger - Ancestors Rest [Trackland] 
Brendan Moeller - Safari [Third Ear]
Salama - Digger's Meditation [TT]
Dib - Cieloterra [Lempuyang]
Sub Basics - Sentient Machines [Temple of Sound]


May 2024

pu1se/tone switch

Skee's insight through his daily listening habits, from guilty pleasures to casual recommendations and in between... 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/skee-mask/episodes/skee-mask-13th-september-2024

Feierabend w/ Skee Mask 130924

Sounds of stillness and peace from the Japanese "kankyō ongaku" movement - environmental and ambient recordings, produced as a reaction to the growing hyper-commercialisation and urbanisation of 1980s Japan. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-japanese-new-age-and-environmental-music-vol-ii-9th-april-2025

NTS Guide to: Japanese New Age and Environmental Music Vol II  090425

Trips through the breakbeat portal with Tim Reaper, one of modern jungle's most vital talents. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/tim-reaper/episodes/tim-reaper-4th-june-2025

Tim Reaper 040625

Athenian Marketplace takes the reigns of a 2 hour monthly slot from our LA studio. 

[Soundcloud](https://soundcloud.com/the-athenian-marketplace)

[Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClxiC9A2kuRAcGueZunggdA) 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/yayayi/episodes/yayayi-28th-august-2025

The Athenian Marketplace 280825

Recorded for Paul Reset's show on Radio Magnetic, Glasgow, August 2003.

Tracklist:

1. Joint Project - Fantasize (Soapbar)
2. Wots My Code - Dubplate (XLR8)
3. Slipmatt - Breaking Free (Awesome)
4. Hyper-On Experience - Lords of the Null Lines (Foul Play remix) (Moving Shadow)
5. DJ Buz - Slave Special (No U-Turn)
6. International Rude Boyz - Drum Programme (remix) (Formation)
7. Q Project - Night Moves (Alliance remix) (Legend)
8. LTJ Bukem - Enchanted (Good Looking)
9. The Vice Squad - Give the Poor Man a Break (Pimp Plastic)
10. Tayla - Bang the Drums (Good Looking)
11. Fugitive Part II - Mind Games (Underdog)
12. Skanna - Until the Night is Morning (Skanna)
13. The Rude Boy Project - Crimestretch (Symphony Sound)
14. Two Dark Troopers - Darkcore (Basement)
15. ? - Mega 2 (F Project)
16. DJ Red Alert & Mike Slammer - Ruffer!!! (Slammin' Vinyl)
17. DJ Mayhem - Damage (Basement)
18. Kev Bird & The Wax Doctor - On a Roll (Basement)
19. Cloud 9 - Return of the Donut pt 2 (Moving Shadow)
20. Fast Floor - Plight of the Innovators (Smooth)
21. Smooth but Hazzardous - Push Up the Levels (Sound Entity)
22. Nasty Habits - Dark Angel (Reinforced)
23. N-Joi - Drumstruck (Deconstruction)
24. ? - Universal Sound (F Project)
25. Dark Mark - Hypertension EP (F Project)
26. Chaos & Julia Set - Bounce (Recoil)
27. Tango - Future Followers (Formation)
28. Kev Bird & The Wax Doctor - Dark Matter (Basement)

Cycais (as Hex) - August 2003

20 years later...

In recent times there has been a lot of looking back to the early 1990s in house music which made me curious about what my dj sets actually sounded like back then. As it's 20 years on I thought it might be fun to put one up as an Optimo podcast, but sadly I had no recordings of that time as I had long given away or lost any tapes i had from then (everything was on cheap C90 cassette tapes in those days). Then, last week a local producer sent me his album to peruse and mentioned that he had a couple of mix tapes of mine, both from 1991.

So, here is a genuine 1991 mix recorded in that year when I was co-resident at Pure in Edinburgh (which ran from 1990 - 2000) when i was known simply as Twitch rather than JD Twitch (the JD was added many years later to stop people billing me as DJ Twitch, which I loathed).

Although I started djing in 1987, I didn't start mixing records together until 1990 and couldn't afford turntables until the end of that year, so initially when i was djing at Pure I was literally learning on the job. Thankfully the euphoria of those times coupled with the fact it was all so new and exciting to so many meant that I got away with it as audiences were a lot more forgiving than they are today. Requests were fairly rare and usually a lot more oblique, often along the lines of "Can you play some "E" music?" Heckling or shouting "come on!', "harder!", "techno!" was non existent. it wasn't a better time, just different, but audiences in general were a bit politer and more patient.

This mix is two sides of two different C90 cassettes stuck together. The first half is from late 1991. It has a lot of that "E" music people were asking for on it. The mixing ranges from pretty good to the odd "ouch" moment but overall is not bad for a beginner. The second half is from earlier in 1991 and the mixing is a lot more, uh, "freeform" and gets through a high number of tracks in a short time. I think this section may have been recorded live at Pure although I can't be sure as despite running for ten years we only ever made a tiny number of live recordings. There are a couple of massively cheesy and seriously dated rave anthems on here and a couple of tracks I have absolutely no recollection of ever having heard in my life, but there is also a lot of music that I still play to this day and indeed have never stopped playing since, and some, such as MK's "Burning", Mike Perras and CLS that are enduring classics. To use the parlance of back in the day, the mix gets a little "mental" towards the end. The tape begins with a live recording of a bit of chat from the Ragga Twins live at Pure in early 1991 and ends with a particularly twisted take on David Lynch's "Lady In The Radiator Song" followed by a blast of Throbbing Gristle. Sometimes I'd drop in things like that at Pure which maybe helps explain why a few regulars ended up with mental health issues! Pure had a reputation for being a techno club and in the early days a temple to all things rave but it was always a lot more than that (as well as those things too of course) as this podcast demonstrates. Despite the sound (and mixing) limitations I think it's an interesting document of what was going on in my world 20 years ago. 


The audio fidelity of this podcast is not high, particularly in the second half. The original cassette tape was probably copied multiple times as it was passed around from person to person. Richard Chisolm who excavated the tapes has done some remastering to improve the sound but old multi generation tapes rarely sound good and it was probably quite lo fi to begin with. It was mixed live using a cheap mixer through a cheap amp. Back then the vast majority of dj mixers were very basic - no eq, no gain and no gizmos whatsoever; just a volume fader, a crossfader and phono / line switches which I used to flick to cut tracks in and out. The mix is 85 minutes long and is a 192kbps mp3 (118mb). 

Thanks to Richard aka Restless Native.
 