Phonica

https://soundcloud.com/twitch
https://soundcloud.com/optimo-music
Artwork: https://soundcloud.com/greta-motif
🔊 https://youtu.be/POMQe3EZzwQ

JD Twitch began his journey into music and djing in 1987, just in time for the arrival of Acid House and Rave. He started two legendary Scottish clubs - Pure and Optimo, the latter a duo with Jonnie Wilkes which recently celebrated 25 years of global touring, outrageous parties, and communitarian activism. He produces, remixes, promotes, presents radio shows, music supervises for films and runs the hard to pigeonhole Optimo Music label.

Play on YouTube

LAYER #335 | JD Twitch (Optimo Music)

Optimo live from The Beach Stage at Love International 2023. 

First 3 hours of their 6 hour set on the Beach.

Live from the Adriatic 2023: Optimo

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/love2jdtwitch

This is a mix that long ago lived on the internet, then ended up properly mastered as one of the cassettes in our 15th anniversary box set. We're releasing it again now to bring attention to our friend, Keith McIvor aka JD Twitch, who's been diagnosed with a brain tumor. The liner notes for the cassette, below, lay out how formative our experiences of Optimo (Espacio) were as we built our thing. Keith played the very first Mister Saturday Night, and we went on to develop a long friendship with both him and Jonnie. We are forever grateful to them and hope you will support Keith and his family now as they deal with one of the most difficult moments of life. Love live Keith McIvor. Long live Optimo. 

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/love2jdtwitch


*Original Liner Notes*

Optimo were huge inspirations when Justin and I threw our first Mister Saturday Night parties in 2009. Justin had seen them play at the Motherfucker party at Limelight sometime in 2004, while I spent time at the weekly Sunday night parties that JD Twitch (Keith McIvor) and Jonnie Wilkes’ threw in Glasgow during my college days. We were both taken by Keith and Jonnie’s ability to incorporate just about any music into their sets while still pleasing everyone in the room, record diggers and punters alike.

This particular set is from the summer of 2010, a party we hosted in a Bushwick back alley, and it encapsulates Optimo's knack for party-rocking in the most unconventional way. Classic house gives way to afrobeat, builds up into a high energy Italo track that drips to a halt, before revving into a sequence that includes an off-kilter Comeme record, “Pump Up The Jam,” ‘80s electro, lo-fi techno and Jesse Jackson’s “I Am Somebody” speech, before Liquid Liquid's Sal Principato grabs the mic and sings “Optimo,” the track for which Keith and Jonnie named their project. To hear is to believe.

— Eamon Harkin

MSN Tape 1510 - Optimo

Part 1. A Fundraiser for JD Twitch / Optimo, 2010 in NYC (featuring Sal P from Liquid Liquid)

At Field Maneuvers 2023, Optimo (Espacio) played the final set in the Sputnik tent as part of the Watching Trees takeover. "We expected everyone to be on their final reserves of energy," they said. "But it was instantly apparent that there was electric energy in the tent. It ended up being one of the most joyous, life-affirming gigs of [the year]."

@optimo-music @fieldmaneuvers

Find out more about Field Maneuvers 2024: https://ra.co/news/80472

RA Live - Optimo (Espacio) - Field Maneuvers, UK

If you’ve been to Phonica in the past 15+ years, you likely know Nick Williams—an integral figure behind the counter, sharing his deep and eclectic musical taste with everyone from global DJs to underground newcomers. As founder of Meda Fury Records, he’s championed soulful, leftfield sounds, discovering artists like DJ Seinfeld along the way. A seasoned DJ himself, Nick has played iconic clubs like Fabric and Corsica, known for genre-defying sets that span ambient, house, techno, post-punk, jungle, and beyond. His latest mix reflects this wide scope—layered, emotional, and full of unexpected gems.

Phonica Friends & Family Mix Series 24: Nick Williams

"all good things come to an end but the memories live on."

this is the live recording of my set at the final edition of @velvetfestival in june 2025. I loved this intimate festival on the beautiful island of krk, croatia. playing freely, house, disco, gospel with a heart warming message.

suze ijó @ velvet fest 2025

🌐 Refuge Worldwide is a radio station and community space based in Berlin-Neukölln.
➡️ More info, more music: www.refugeworldwide.com

Help us stay on air by donating to our fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-refuge-worldwide-community-radio

The Breakfast Show  - Stella Zekri & Dee Diggs - 13 Aug 2025

For RA.1000, we take it back to the source with two never-before-heard tapes from Frankie Knuckles's private collection

There is no house music without Frankie Knuckles, literally or figuratively. The queer icon's luxurious DJ sets at Chicago's Warehouse gave a rising movement its name. From there, countless offshoots splintered and travelled the globe. But what did the genesis and growth of the sound really feel like?

The Godfather of House left behind not only timeless records, but personalised cassettes with hand-drawn liner notes handed out to friends and family. Two of those, dated to 1989 and 1996, have been digitised especially for RA.1000. (Thank you to the Frankie Knuckles Foundation.)

To put that in context: the first tape predates not only many of today's active clubbers, but the entire existence of jungle, drum & bass, UK garage, French touch, Jersey club, Afrobeats, IDM, baile funk, hardcore, footwork, dubstep, dub techno, tech house, breaks, minimal, maximal, gqom, gabber, grime and hyperpop.

In short… that's a very, very long time ago. The world of dance music was much smaller. DJ culture was functionally unrecognisable from the one we see in 2025. 

And yet, to some degree, what you'll hear on RA.1000 hasn't changed at all. It's a capture of not only what made Frankie Knuckles one of the beloved pioneers of first-generation dance music, but what draws people to club culture in the first place.

The mood on these Frankie Knuckles sets outlasts even its creator: a spirit of optimism that floods the world's best dance floors and keeps dance music pulsing on into the future, nearly 40 years later, in spite of it all. We end our 1000th mix celebrations here because it all starts there.

Find the tracklist at ra.co/podcast/1018. Listen to all RA.1000 mixes, as well as the complete history of the RA Podcast, at https://1000.ra.co

RA.1000 Frankie Knuckles

An hour of Tornado Wallace live from the Love International Sunrise Sessions in 2025. 

TP541 Tornado Wallace (Love International Sunrise Sessions)

Vladimir Ivkovic b2b Sean Johnston live from The Olive Grove at Love International festival 2025

Live from the Adriatic 2025: Vladimir Ivkovic b2b Sean Johnston

Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records have teamed up again to release another volume of gay porn soundtracks by San Francisco-based musician and producer, Patrick Cowley. Perhaps one of the most revolutionary and influential people in the cannon of disco music, Cowley created his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music coined "The San Francisco Sound." Born in Buffalo, NY on October 19, 1950, Patrick moved to San Francisco at the age of 21. He studied at the City College of San Francisco where he founded the Electronic Music Lab. During this time Patrick, along with his classmates Maurice Tani and Art Adcock, would create radio jingles and electronic pieces using the school's equipment, first a Putney, then an E-MU System and finally a Serge synthesizer. He would make experimental instrumental songs by blending various types of music and adapting them to the synthesizer. 
By the mid-70's, Patrick's synthesizer skills landed him a job composing and producing songs for disco superstar Sylvester such as “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”, “Dance Disco Heat” and "Stars." This helped Patrick obtain more work as a remixer and producer. By 1981 Patrick released a string of dance 12" singles, like “Menergy” and “Megatron Man”, creating the soundtrack for a generation. Also that year, he founded Megatone Records and released his debut album. Around this time Patrick was hospitalized and diagnosed with a then-unknown illness: that would later be called AIDS. Prior to his passing on November 12, 1982, he recorded two more Hi-NRG hits, “Do You Wanna Funk” for Sylvester and "Right On Target" for Paul Parker as well as a second solo album “Mind Warp”.
In 1979 Patrick was contacted by John Coletti, owner of famed gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles. John had heard about Patrick's music from the legendary Sylvester and proposed he write music for his films. Patrick jumped on this offer and sent reels of his college compositions from the 70s to John in LA. Coletti then used a variable speed oscillator to adjust the pitch and speed of Patrick's songs in-sync with the film scene.  “Muscle Up" is a collection of Cowley's instrumental songs recorded between 1973 and 1980 found in the Fox Studio vaults. This compilation also includes bonus compositions found in the basement of Megatone Records owner John Hedges and the attic of former bandmate Maurice Tani. Influenced by Tomita, Wendy Carlos and Giorgio Moroder, Patrick forged an electronic sound from his collection of synthesizers, percussion, modified guitars and self-constructed equipment. The listener enters a world of dark forbidden vices, introspective and reflective of Patrick's time spent in the bathhouses of San Francisco. The songs on “Muscle Up” are divided into four sides, from the ambient, jungle journey of side one to the instrumental demo version of “Somebody to Love Tonight” on side two, to the space-funk of side three and finally the interstellar workouts of side four, that further reveal the depth of Cowley's unique talent.  
Featuring 75 minutes of music, this compilation contains soundtrack music from two Fox Studio films, "Muscle Up" and "School Daze", plus additional songs from the same era, never before released on vinyl. The tapes were restored and transferred using the same speed and pitch settings, then remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA.  The vinyl comes housed in a extra wide spine jacket and giant fold-out poster featuring a handmade collage using photography and xerox graphics of classic gay porn imagery from the Fox Studio vaults by Berlin-based artist Gwenael Rattke. Each double album also contains a 8x11 glossy promotional “Muscle Up” replica poster with original VHS artwork plus an essay from Maurice Tani. For Patrick's 65th birthday, Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records present a glimpse into the futuristic world of a young genius.

5oz Of Funk

Don't Ask Me

Nathan Melja is the same young Frenchman whose debut EP we released under the name Melja late last year. Since then, he moved to New York and worked at Mister HQ for a few months, manned the light booth at the Mister Saturday Night and Mister Sunday parties (DJs make the best light guys), and spent most of his time outside that making music. Leo Draws is the culmination of that music-making, two murky but beautiful tracks centered around vocal samples and one off-kilter number named at the dark corners of the dancefloor.

Nathan Melja - If You Can Dance Then Rave On It - Leo Draws EP - MSN019

Patrick Cowley - Somebody To Love Tonight [Dark Entries, 2015]

Muscle Up

Deep Inside You- Patrick Cowley

Hula Vortex EP

Mental Marathon

Mister Sunday | Mister Saturday Night | Planetarium | Mister Saturday Night Records

Parties and Label run by Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter, Mister Sunday and Mister Saturday Night residents, co-founders of Nowadays. We post releases from the label and mixes here.

Nathan Melja - If You Can Dance Then Rave On It - Leo Draws EP - MSN019

mistersaturdaynight

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