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Various Artists: Polyphonic Cosmos: A Beginners Guide To Japan In The 80s (1981 - 86)

Compiled by JD Twitch • Cease & Desist / C&D002

Side 1

1 World Standard - ばら二曲 Baranikyoku (Fellini&Rota) - 3.34 (1985)
2 Masumi Hara - Your Dream - 2.45 (1984)
3 Normal Brain - M.U.S.I.C. - 4.16  (1981)
4 Hiroyuki Namba - Who Done It? (part 2) - 4.04 (1983)

Side 2

1 Yasuaki Shimizu - Crow - 4.46 (1981)
2 Hiroyuki Namba - Tropical Exposition - 3.29 (1982)
3 Imitation - Exotic Dance - 6.02 (1982)
4 Pecker - Sha La La - 3.21 (1983)

Side 3

1 EP-4 - dB - 5.12 (1984)
2 Earthling - You Go Natural - 4.27 (1981)
3 Masumi Hara - Camera - 5.22  (1982)

Side 4

1 Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Rinne Kohkyogaku Meikei - 5.06 (1986)
2 D - Day - Ki Ra-I - 4.16 (1986)
3 Ryuichi Sakamoto - A Wongga Dance Song - 6.18 (1985)

Ever since he made his first trip to Japan to DJ, Optimo Music founder JD Twitch has been bewitched by Japanese music, and particularly the vibrant, imaginative, and often far-sighted sounds which emerged from the island nation during the 1980s. Now he’s put years of digging in Japanese record shops to good use on Polyphonic Cosmos, the latest release on his compilation-focused Cease & Desist imprint.

Subtitled ‘A Beginners Guide to Japan In The ‘80s’, the collection offers a personal selection of Japanese gems recorded and released between 1981 and ’86 – a period when advances in recording and musical technology offered the nation’s artists and producers a whole new tool kit to employ. When combined with the unique musical culture of Japan, where local traditions are frequently fused with Western styles to create timeless, off-kilter aural fusions, this embrace of locally pioneered music technology had spectacular, often unusual results.

Eight years in the making, Polyphonic Cosmos provides an endlessly entertaining musical snapshot of Japanese music of the early-to-mid ‘80s with all of the open-minded eclecticism and sonic twists that you would expect from the Glasgow-based DJ.

Compare and contrast, for example, the gently breezy, morning-fresh folk-plus-electronics bliss of ‘ばら二曲 Baranikyoku (Fellini&Rota)’ by World Standard – the most familiar alias of long-serving musician/producer Sohichiro Suzuki – and the hallucinatory, slow-motion tribal rhythms, post-punk rhythms and tape delay-laden electronics of Imitation’s ‘Exotic Dance’. Or, for that matter, the tipsy mid-‘80s electronic reggae of Pecker’s ‘Sha La La’, the grungy but melodic post-punk strut of ‘You Go On Natural’ by Earthling (a track Twitch accurately describes as “sheer unrelenting groove”), and the unearthly, swirling sonics, new age instrumentation and flotation tank vocals of prolific (and seemingly mysterious) act Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s ‘Rimme Kohkyogaku Meiki’.

It’s a credit to JD Twitch’s curatorial skills that the quality never dips, and sonic surprises lurk around every corner. Consider for a moment the hard to describe, far-sighted audio immersion of D-Day’s ‘Ki-Ra’ – all languid post-pop guitar, enveloping chords, spoken word vocals, shuffling 808 beats and marimba melodies – and the two contributions from video games soundtrack specialist (and driving instrumental synth-pop specialist) Hiroyuki Namba.

The collection naturally includes some selections that have long been favourites in Twitch’s DJ sets – see Masumi Hara’s ‘Your Dream’ – as well as a handful of tracks from artists who may be more recognisable to those with only rudimentary knowledge of Japanese musical culture. The great Yasuaki Shimizu, whose work as Mariah has become far better known in recent years thanks to reissues of some of his most magical albums, is represented via ‘The Crow’, a picturesque chunk of horizontal, hard-to-define jazz-not-jazz smokiness, while the collection fittingly concludes with a sublimely funky, oddball electronic workout from Yellow Magic Orchestra legend Ryuichi Sakamoto (the frankly incredible ‘Wongga Dance Song’).

Cease & Desist 002 - Various: Polyphonic Cosmos: Sonic Innovations In Japan (1980 - 86) OUT NOW!

Underspreche -  Subterrenus EP

A1) Jefe 6.06
A2) Liasion - 5.55

AA1) Mikea - 8.57


After the success of their debut split EP with Muslimgauze which sold out in record time, the southern Italian male/female duo Underspreche return to Optimo Trax for their first EP in their own right. Three tracks of deliciously psychedelic, advanced techno grooves filled with subtle syncopations and head melting sound design. First release in the new Optimo Trax colour scheme.

Three track 12" EP (and digital release) released on June 24th 2016. Distributed by Kompakt and Rub A Dub.


Optimo Trax 022 - Underspreche -  Subterrenus 12" EP (sampler)

Optimo Music is happy to present the second full-length from The Golden Filter, STILL // ALONE.

After relocating to London and playing shows around Europe for a year and a half, self-imposed pariahs Penelope Trappes and Stephen Hindman delved into creating a two-sided existential opus by renting out old studio spaces around the UK and using mostly analog 80's instruments, machines and effects.

An album about being in love with pure solitude, when STIILL // ALONE is separated into two distinct sides, record one, STILL, is a hypnotic meditation for the nightclub. Wavy patterns of sound and light bounce off Penelope's literary vocal bursts, layered over ominous deep synths and arpeggiators, held together only by strict 4/4 beats. The rhythm, ironically forcing the body to move, however internally focused and mindful, still.

Record two, ALONE, takes the club offline and into the fringes of raw, odd pop. Ever-prominent drum machine beats rule, while love and loss permeate the four atmospheric goth songs. Music for dancing alone.

"Behind the cotton wool is hidden a pattern... the whole world is a work of art... there is no Shakespeare... no Beethoven... no God; we are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself." - Virginia Woolf


LP Title: Still // Alone
Artist: The Golden Filter
Label: Optimo Music
Release Date: February 24th 2017
Format: Vinyl, Digital

1. We Are The Music
2. Vibrational
3. Now We Get Lost
4. Nine
5. //
6. Questions
7. Dust
8. There Is No Love Between Us
9. Rivers

OM LP 07 -  The Golden Filter - Still // Alone (album sampler)

OM LP 09

A1 Jorge Reyes - Plight 
A2 Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe & Ariel Kalma - Mille Voix 
A3 Iona Fortune - White Tigress	

B1 O Yuki Conjugate - Cloud Cover	
B2 X.Y.R. - Middle Of Nowhere 
B3 Jon Keliehor - Subcontinent	
B4 David Cunningham - Blue River
	
C1 Larry Chernicoff - Woodstock, New York 
C2 Sussan Deyhim & Richard Horowitz - Desert Equations (For Brion Gysin) 
C3 Jon Hassell - Miracle Steps	
C4 Vulgata - Ethel I 

D1 Afro-Disiak - Tambours D'Eau 
D2 Rapoon - The Same River Once	
D3 Javier Segura - El Sueno Perdido	

Optimo Music presents "Miracle Steps (Music from the Fourth World 1983 - 2017)", a 2 x LP compilation of Fourth World music compiled by JD Twitch & Fergus Clark. Also available as a digital release. 

This compilation had been on the label’s to do list for ages but it was only when Twitch and Glasgow’s Fergus Clark started crossing swords over what actually constituted Fourth World music that the project really got going. Twitch decided that co-compiling the release with someone who had a slightly different take on things might make for a more interesting finished release, and so it came to pass that a cohesively thrilling compilation quickly materialised as each of them drew from a wealth of different artists and eras.


For the uninitiated, here’s an extract from Fergus Clark’s sleeve notes honing in on how the term Fourth World (an idea conjured up by Jon Hassell in the early 80s) might be defined -


“What we have attempted to gather across this compilation is a body of work which we feel directly resonates with both the literal definition of ‘Fourth World’ music and indeed our own interpretation of this unique sonic vision; from the work of the late Jorge Reyes, a Mexican musician who combined pre-hispanic instruments with synthesisers and digital sampling, through to the work of organic ambient ensemble O Yuki Conjugate. There are tracks which utilise custom, home-made instruments and there are tracks built from scratch using the latest in digital technology, but the undercurrent tying each piece together is this deeply personal feeling of intrigue and mysterious elation. Strange and unparalleled, this feeling manages to eschew geographic borders and rigid genre movements in favour of something which manages to evoke an inner sanctum, a musical private place for both reflection and assessment. This is music grounded in nor the past nor the present, music which manages to sound futuristic yet remarkably nostalgic. “


JD Twitch is one half of Glasgow’s Optimo (Espacio) and runs the Optimo Music and Optimo Trax labels.

Fergus Clark is a writer, occasional DJ and avid music fan. He is a founding member of the music and art collective 12th Isle.

The 2 x LP version will be housed in a gatefold sleeve designed by the redoubtable Glasgow based visual artists Al White & Jamie Johnson.

Released on vinyl (and digital) on April 14th 2017. Distributed by Kompakt.

OM 09 LP - Various - Miracle Steps (Music From The Fourth World 1983 - 2017)

Not your ordinary mix by one of our favorites and longtime friend: JG Wilkes. Follow Jonnie, stripped down to the waist and fueled by coffee and bananas, on a musical voyage through the various stages of the night. Nothing is easy or predictable, and in bona fide Optimo style JG veers off deep into leftfield, steering clear of dogma while transcending genres to bring you more than a mix - an experience.

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