Factory Floor remix by Optimo (Espacio) on Optimo Music

Factory Floor - Real Love (An Optimo (Espacio) mix)

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!

During 2021, to help get through the ongoing lockdown I made a series of 90 minute cassette tapes, one a month for ten months. I thought there would be a small demand but was blown away by the response. People really embraced them and copies went to every corner of the planet. They became a huge part of my year and really helped me through a tough time.

A little later I made them available digitally for a short period and all the proceeds raised went to Glasgow NW Foodbank. I was again blown away as thousands of pounds were raised.

i have decided to put the series on Soundcloud. I'll upload them sporadically over the coming months. 

This was the 1st one - ULTRAGOTH; my personal definition of Goth. It may or may not be up your strasse but hopefully some in the series will tickle your ears. 

OG Text from Feb 2021 below -

During lockdown I got really into walking and I now walk around 8 - 10 miles every day. I think it saved my sanity, helped me get my inspiration back, kept me fit and made me see Glasgow through new eyes. I have now seen almost every corner of this dear green place. 

Late last year I found my old personal stereo in a drawer and started listening to my small collection of tapes on these walks. I had thought my days of loving the tape format were long gone but I fell in love with them all over again. They have been a perfect companion on my walks and inspired me to put together this series of tapes. Each mix in the series was made for walking in that it is a collection of music I love that I have then mixed and road tested on my walks around Glasgow. I do love a project so decided to share them by making a series of them available, in a limited quantity. 


The first tape - 

OM Tape 01 - ULTRAGOTH. 

ULTRAGOTH is a very occasional JD Twitch solo night in Glasgow and is a celebration of my definition of what might be construed as Goth music, and more specifically what music is deserving in my opinion of the accolade ULTRAGOTH. It is a broad definition encompassing Post Punk, Synth Music, Dark pop, Ethereal ambience, Industrial electronics, North Yorkshire Cold Wave, unknown gems and even some well known hits. I think this has made for a great launch tape that is an excellent listen starting off deeply atmospheric before rising to a frenetic finale. 

I just finished putting together Tape 2 which will be "Hi tech electronic music from Japan in the 1980s". Further tapes will delve into a wide range of musics I love and all will be thoroughly walk tested. 

That's a lot of info! Thanks for reading and as ever for the support, JD Twitch, March 2021.

Artwork – Musheto Fernandez.

JD Twitch - ULTRAGOTH (Optimo Music Tape 001 - originally released March 2021)

A mix for a Ransom Note takeover on Brussels Kiosk Radio, 20/01/2023

JD Twitch Kiosk Radio mix (20/01/2023)

During 2021, to help get through the ongoing lockdown I made a series of 90 minute cassette tapes, one a month for ten months. I thought there would be a small demand but was blown away by the response. People really embraced them and copies went to every corner of the planet. They became a huge part of my year and really helped me through a tough time.

A little later I made them available digitally for a short period and all the proceeds raised went to Glasgow NW Foodbank. I was again blown away as thousands of pounds were raised.

I have decided to put the series on Soundcloud. I'll upload them sporadically over the coming months. I'm skipping the 2nd one as it has the same title as a compilation I put out recently and I don't want the two getting confused, but I may come back to it later. This is the 3rd one titled “SMI²LE - Space Migration, Intelligence Increase, Life Extension".

Smi²le was Timothy Leary’s mid 70s vision of the future of humanity. It's Utopian & in hindsight wildly optimistic. He believed we would have colonised space & have cloned ourselves by around the year 2000. He envisaged millions of us would be living in “High orbital mini Earths” in our own small Utopian communities. I have a long time fascination with (unrealisable) Utopian communities and Smi²le has always been one I particularly liked as it was so fully thought out & even by Utopian standards wildly hopeful & unrealistic. It's also relevant to our times as contentious/ awful figures like Peter Thiel & Elon Musk have adopted the worst parts of these ideas without any public scrutiny. Free market space migration may not be a positive thing, particularly if we are exporting this planet’s problems into outer space.

Anyway, that’s an aside and it’s basically a 90 minute space themed mix of music. Understanding / knowing about the Smi²le concept is not essential to its enjoyment. :)

Tape released May 7, 2021

Artwork – Musheto Fernandez.

JD Twitch - SMI²LE (Optimo Music Tape 003 - originally released May 2021)

We were asked by BBC 6 Music to put together a mini mix in tribue to Andrew Weatherall to celebrate what would have been his 60th birthday. It is made up entirely of music Andrew had a hand in. Broadcast April 7th 2023.

Optimo (Espacio) - Andrew Weatherall 60th birthday tribute mix for BBC 6 Music

Autonomous Africa Volume 3

---------------------------

This is the third Autonomous Africa EP, the idea being that one EP is released each year and all proceeds are donated to a charity in Africa. Last year's second volume, along with a fundraising night in Glasgow and another in London raised several thousand pounds for the Mtandika Mission in Tanzania (more info on that below). Midland grew up in Tanzania and his parents run the aforementioned charity so it feels fitting that AA continues to raise funds for that. Midland has once again contributed a stellar track as has AA stalwart Auntie Flo (who has now contributed to all three releases). This year they are joined by Glasgow funksters General Ludd and then Twitch rounds off the EP. All being well, this year will also see an AA compilation album of music from Africa.

EP tracks are

A1) Midland - Safi
A2) General Ludd - Burning Mack

AA1) Auntie Flo featuring Anbuley - Daabi
AA2) JD Twitch - Maya

All tracks mastered by Matt Colton.

Distribution by Above Board. Released 28th July 2014 on 12". Digital will follow.

A big, warm thank you to I AM in Glasgow and Trouble Vision in London for putting on AA fundraising nights and for their immense generosity. 
--------

Why Autonomous Africa?

----------------------

Many of the problems Africa faces are a result of outside interference by other countries, and as the 21st century progresses we will see the continued pillage of African resources to feed the global capitalist machine on an unprecedented scale. Corrupt and greedy regimes gladly sell their land and mineral wealth to finance their own extravagant lifestyles while the vast majority of ordinary people see little or no improvement in their own lives. An autonomous Africa run by the people for the people, where African land is predominantly used to feed African people and Africa's vast wealth of resources is used to benefit the people of Africa seems the only logical way forward. Autonomous Africa's goal is to highlight this message and here presents to you 4 tracks of African inspired grooves.

We fully realise a small run, independently released 12" is going to make very little difference to the world, but doing something has to be better than doing nothing. The idea of an autonomous Africa may be naive and unrealistic, but at some point the world we live in will have to change or future generations are going to be left with very little as we consume way more than our fair share. We have collectively buried our heads in the sand thinking we are powerless to engender change. Individually we have little power but collectively, the power is ours.

JD Twitch, June 2013.

--------

About The Mtandika Mission
--------------------------

Mtandika is a large village in the dry Ruaha river valley, 400km west of Dar es Salaam. It is a very poor village.

One of the prime movers in the village is Sister Barberina Mhagala. Since she retired from being Headmistress of the Primary School in 2005, Sister Barberina has been developing a Trade School at Mtandika to provide skills training for girls who are either orphans or have no fees for secondary education. She started by building a classroom and dormitory for the Trade School girls who were given sewing lessons and learning to make garments to sell.

Because many of the children do not have homes locally, accommodation is critical. So Sister then built extra accommodation blocks, not only for some of the girls attending the Trade School but also for some 80 girls attending the local Lukosi Secondary School where there was no accommodation.

The girls are taught to be as self sufficient as possible and as well and grow their own food and rear animals in the school grounds.

Water supply is critical, as water is not only required for every day purposes at the school but for irrigating the shambas [allotments]. Water is currently pumped from the nearby perennial Lukosi river some 500 metres away using a petrol pump. Investigations into a cheaper alternative are being investigated.

Education is essential if Tanzania is to fully develop its full potential and anything is possible given the opportunity. As well as supporting Sister Barberina in her capital expenditure, some 10 of the children at the Trade School and 30 at local Secondary Schools who cannot afford the fees are sponsored by funds raised by the charity.

More information - www.actioninafrica.org/about-mtandika.php

Autonomous Africa 3 EP (sampler)

Autonomous Africa - AA Bonus 10 - Limited edition one sided 10", due 15th September 2014. Vinyl only release. Distributed by Above Board.

This edit (originally created in 2008 for my dj sets) was supposed to be included on the recently released third Autonomous Africa 12". Unfortunately I didn't get permission to use it in time for that release but permission has now been given, so rather than wait for AA 004 in 2015 it is going to come out as a limited edition hand stamped 10" as soon as possible. All proceeds will once again go to the Mtandika mission in Tanzania - http://www.actioninafrica.org/about-mtandika.php

Mastered by Matt Colton. 

A big thanks to Ben UFO and Midland for championing this edit. The interest they generated directly led to the motivation for this release.

Amadou & Mariam - Ce N'est Pas Bon (A JD Twitch edit)

Bucky Skank is my hobby. I've loved Jamaican and Jamaican inspired / influenced music for nearly my whole musical life. I don't consider myself an expert in any way but over the years I have amassed quite a lot of this music and it is one of a very few forms of music I can listen to all day without getting bored.

I have played about a half dozen full sets of this music and it has been like learning how to dj all over again. All those sets had a slightly shambolic edge to them as I found my feet but have been wonderful, if nerve wracking fun as I scrambled in the dark to find the right 7" to play next. It's definitely not something I'd like to do all the time but doing it one or two times a year is a true joy, so a big thanks to those who have come along and danced. 

There is also the Bucky Skank label, again very much a hobby which releases a couple of 12"s each year (the first one now sold out, the second one due shortly).

Anyway, here's a two hour mix featuring some of what I played at this year's Bucky Skank in Glasgow. Half of it was recorded on the night and half after the fact, at home. Hopefully the joins aren't too noticeable. A tiny handful of the tracks were on the mix I put up a couple of years ago (The Upsetters' "Bucky Skank" will of course appear in every Bucky Skank set I do and bookends this mix albeit in different versions). if you are looking for totally obscure, ultra rare Jamaican music, this is probably not for you but if you want to hear some of the myriad sounds that have come out of that small island or that it has inspired, hopefully it will be enjoyable; plenty of hits and lots of personal favourites from across 50 years (1964 - 2014), ranging from Barrington Levy, Bim Sherman, Prince Far I and Tenor Saw to Kahn, Cutty Ranks and Lady Saw.

The mix is "augmented" with my dub siren, some space echo and Maschine being used to trigger some additional sounds and samples.

The mix is a little over two hours long, is a downloadable 256kbps mp3 and is 230mb.

JD Twitch - Bucky Skank 2014 mix (NOT for laptop speakers)

On May 25th 2024, to accompany the launch of his Arthur Russell book "Travels Over Feeling" Richard King put together an event at London's Barbican celebrating Arthur's life with an all star musical cast recreating and reimagining his music.

I was thrilled to be invited to play a DJ set in the foyer afterwards. I have been an Arthur Russell devotee for 30 years and decided to play an all Arthur Russell DJ set*. The atmosphere was very special with lots of love transmitting back and forth from the DJ booth to the dancefloor. I really felt a freedom to slowly build it up playing so many of my favourite AR tracks and it was one of my very favourite DJ gis of 2024 so far.


*Full disclosure - there was an additional 30 minutes finale of this set that didn't record where I played non Arthur Russell, disco / disco adjacent records.

JD Twitch - All Arthur Russell DJ set, live at The Barbican, London 25/05/24

We are happy to announce the first in an occasional series of fully licensed 12" releases on Autonomous Africa exploring the influence of music from Africa across the globe.

The first release comes from Colombia's Wganda Kenya with three tracks recorded in the mid 70s. The Caribbean coast of Colombia has a long relationship with Africa stretching back hundreds of years. Strong trading links and migration from West Africa to Colombia led to a distinct African influence on the music in cities such as Cartagena and the local music (cumbia and champeta) absorbed these influences. This was  particularly notable in the 70s as records by Fela Kuti amongst others arrived in Colombia. One of the leading practitioners of this Afro Sound were the mighty Wganda Kenya who were huge there in the 70s and 80s and whose music is still highly regarded to this day. 

While their music has appeared on compilations, there hasn't been a big fat 12" vinyl release since Island Records offshoot, Mango put "Shakalode" out as a 12" way back in 1989.

"Shakalode" on the A side is a powerful reworking of the Fela Kuti classic "Shakara" which was much covered in Colombia in the mid 1970s. It's a transcendental Afro Colombian funk bomb.

On the other side are two other Wganda Kenya gems; the call and response percussive and organ grooving "Pim Pom" and the more traditional Colombian cumbia singalong anthem "La Botellita".

Originally this was going to be a 2 x 12" featuring some other Wganda Kenya magic but sadly the masters to many of their tracks have been lost. There are plans to put out a second 12" of reworkings of these tracks aimed at djs who won't play records unless they can mix them, but of course, these 40 year old tracks will still rock any open minded dancefloor just as they are.

All proceeds will once again go to the Mtandika mission in Tanzania - www.actioninafrica.org/about-mtandika.php

Release date April 2015. Distributed by Above Board.

Autonomous Africa is a collaborative project run by JD Twitch, Midland and Auntie Flo.

Autonomous Africa Vintage  01 - Wganda Kenya - Afro Colombia 12" EP (sampler)

A section from my set at Magic Waves Summer Festival, Berlin, July 2015,  featuring the more accessible synth end of the kind of stuff I play at my occasional So Low night in Glasgow. So Low 2 x LP compilation in hand screen printed sleeve coming February 2016 via Vinyl Factory.

JD Twitch Live at Magic Waves Summer Festival, Berlin 2015 (Part 1 - So Low Synth NRG set)

Part 2 of my Magic Waves, Berlin set. I had a sense that by this point in the night the crowd were, uh, feelin' kinda high, so it maybe reflects that a bit. It's a tad more all over the place and a little less doomy than the first part.

JD Twitch Live at Magic Waves Summer Festival, Berlin 2015 (Part 2 - So High set)

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.
 

Optimo Podcast 11 - Twitch 1991 (recorded in 1991)

Live dj mix of Muslimgauze music recorded at Unsound, Krakow, October 22nd 2016. Apart from the occasional use of some FX, this is 100% the music of Muslimgauze with nothing added. Any glitches, distortions, weird audio anomalies, dramatic changes in volume etc. are all part of Muslimguaze’s unique production process. Available to download as a 320 mp3.

Tracklist -

The Taliban

Eleven Minarets Part 10

Arab Jerusalem

Tozeur Palm

Choke Noose Of Gold Silk

Bandit Queen

Noose Of Gold Silk

Azeri Jab

Azzazin 1

Zindabad

Bazoft Rope

Ishmael Tongue

Herod-1

Free From A Veil

Untitled 1985

Purdah Zealot

Azzazin 6

An Abyssinian Who Could Kiss Fine

Khan Younis

Negative Of Ethiopia

The Eternal Illusionist Of Old Baghdad

Baghdad

Najibullah Headless

JD Twitch plays Muslimgauze, Unsound, Krakow 22/10/2016

Our show on NTS, broadcast 6-8pm, Tuesday April 11th 2017. First hour is Twitch, second hour is Wilkes. Available to download as a 320 mp3. Tracklisting -


Twitch


Ted Milton - Love Is Like A Violence (Optimo Music)
Cologne Tape - Welt 2 (Magazine)
Miharu Koshi - Parallelisme (Yen Records)
Moot - Mavis (Variety Recording Service) 
Sordid Sound System - Brave New World (Invisible Inc.)
Takashi Toyoda - Sky (Sound Of Tranquility)
Maria Rita - Lamento Africano / Rictus (Selva Discos / Optimo Music)
Tommy McCook & The Agrovators - The Dub Station (Attack)
Dennis Bovell & Root United feat. Darcus Howe - Dubylon (White)
Lidj Incorporated - Line Up (Youth Sound Records)
Lo Kindre - Distant Dreams (Optimo Music)
Happy Meals - May You Be The Mother - May You Be The Sun (So Low / Optimo Music)
Spring Break - Piano Scarf (Jolly Jams)
Sandii - Zoot Kook (Alfa)


————

Wilkes 

Belbury Poly & Moon Wiring Club - The Music Room (Ghost Box)
Kim Rapatti - Musta Peili (Dum Records)
DJ Sotofett Ol pa SM-Art Bar (Borft)
Prins Thomas - Sun Araw Saddle Soap remix (Smalltown Supersound)
TV Victor - La Beff (Tresor)
Move D - Roll Split (Away)
Succhiamo Succhimo (Anti Note)
Inkke - Pioneer Weightless Vol 2 (Different Circles)
Delia Gonzalez - Roulette (DFA)
Fantastic Twins - Time Science (Hippie Dance)
Chinaski - Ghost Rider (Live At Robert Johnson)
Solar - 5 seconds (Sqirrels on Film)
AHU  - “Untitled 3" (feat Lenta) (Shahr Farang Germany)

Optimo (Espacio) - NTS - 11/04/2017

I still often get asked why I don’t put up more mixes that reflect my more usual dj style. I’m not sure really but maybe it is because I get to hear myself play like that all the time and it’s more interesting to me to put up other stuff? I also like that people who have just come across me and check out my Soundcloud for the first time might think they have stumbled on a reggae dj with the same name by mistake. To help stoke that confusion, here’s a third Bucky Skank mix. Bucky Skank is an annual night I do in Glasgow where I play all Jamaican music and Jamaican inspired music. This year was the 6th edition. I think I get slightly better at doing it each year and reckon by 2031 I might have nailed it. 

This Bucky Skank mix is made up of two sections recorded live on the night of this year’s party combined with a section recorded at home. Hopefully my cunning editing will make it hard to tell where the joins are. It is available to download as a 320 mp3. The music here ranges from 1971 right up to 2017.

I think this mix contains completely different tracks from the other Bucky Skank mixes, or at the very least with minimal crossover and is perhaps my favourite so far. It is LONG! 2 hours 30 minutes and perhaps delves a bit deeper in parts than the previous mixes, though I hope it is still fun to listen to. A lot of fun was had on the night and ultimately that is what the Bucky Skank nights are all about. Roll on next year’s.

JD Twitch - Bucky Skank Jamaican Soundsystem mix 2017

The full version of the text below can be read here - thequietus.com/articles/22925-optimo-20-mix-listen

As well as 2017 being the 20th anniversary of Optimo it is also 30 years since I started DJ’ing, in Edinburgh in the summer of 1987.

It had never crossed my mind to be a DJ and I fell into it quite by accident. Myself and several friends were devoted attendees at a sub basement club in Edinburgh’s Cowgate called The Backroom that started in 1986. It was the first club where we truly felt at home musically and that was frequented by people we felt comfortable being around. The resident DJs, Bill & Bobby, had been playing around Edinburgh for years and had phenomenal taste and abilities to play exactly the right records in the right order at the right time. After a year or so of religiously attending, my good friend Macky noticed a poster announcing they were looking to audition people to play the first two hours of the night. Macky suggested we audition and initially I point blank refused, partly because the idea terrified me and partly because it held little appeal to me at that time. He persisted and eventually I agreed being fairly confident that our total lack of experience would be so apparent that we would never get the gig. Over the next few weeks they auditioned various people by letting them play the start of the night and somehow we were picked to be the new warm up DJs. Yikes!

So began an uninterrupted trend of being part of a DJ duo, and every Saturday night I would get the bus through from Glasgow where I had now moved to study and Macky and I would take turns to play a few records each to a generally completely disinterested audience. Our fee for playing was £25 and I would get £15 as I had to travel through from Glasgow and Macky took a tenner. Once I realised how much I was enjoying doing it I would have happily played for free.

So, what was I playing back then? Well, I kept quite a detailed diary in those days and would write down the records I played each week. From those diary entries I have put together a mix of what I might have played in my first ever set had I had the technical knowledge or ability to actually be a mixing DJ at that time. Though the music played was very diverse, we were all particularly into records with advanced production that sounded state of the art at the time and we used the term Electrobeat to describe the core sound that we were really into. The term didn’t catch on and neither did the music. The club was very popular but the people who came generally did not like weird records they did not know, were quite averse to drum machines and I’d often hear people grumbling about us playing “that drum machine crap”, a scenario which is of course in complete reversal 30 years on.

So, here are 30 tracks mixed together that were the sound of my late teenage years that I tried to turn people on to 30 years ago. Most of the records in this mix would lie dormant on my shelves for the next 20 years but in the last 10 years or so a surprising number have found their way back into my sets and finally found an appreciative audience and sound as good, if not better today than they did 30 years ago.

There is no tracklisting but I don’t think there is anything wildly obscure or rare in the mix. I could have pretended I was playing lots of lesser known records back then, but this is a 100% genuine round up of what I was actually playing in 1987. The two tracks without a drum machine are the only ones which were anything like bonafide dancefloor hits for me at The Backroom at the time. I have also included one (loop from a) track my then co-DJ, Macky used to play lots and also a Bill & Bobby classic. The mix is available to download as a 320 mp3. For a bit of bonus fun I have included one track that wasn’t released until 1988. If anyone can identify which one it is they will win a prize.

JD Twitch - 1987 reimagined (30 year anniversary mix)

** Part 1 now available from here - http://soundcloud.com/alexchase/ohm-dedication-series-2-jd **

For my ears, Adrian Sherwood is the most sonically innovative producer the UK has ever given birth to. If you don't know anything about Mr. Sherwood or his ON U Sound label, either do a bit of Googling, have a listen to this mix or read this interview I was fortunate enough to conduct a couple of months ago (when he was in Glasgow) that is on the Racket Racket website - http://racketracket.co.uk/music/jd-twitch-meets-adrian-sherwood/

This mix covers music from the years 1979 - 88 and focuses on Adrian Sherwood's dubwise productions, most of which were released on his ON U Sound label (a great overview of the label can be found here - http://www.skysaw.org/onu/)

The mix is DUB in the widest (and wildest) sense of that word and veers from beautiful, heart-melting songs to cavernously deep, hard bass pulsations to the odd bit of brain melting sonic radicalism. To this day I don't think any other producer has pushed the envelope so hard which is partly down to a general lack of balls on the part of other producers and partly due to the fact that these productions were all recorded to tape and mixed on a desk with 100% outboard gear, so that pushing the tape way beyond its intended limits forms a large part of the character of the sound. His totally deranged dub techniques are perhaps a little more prevalent on part 1 (see below) of this podcast while this part is in the main more of a continuous heart throb with odd moments of sonic destruction, offering a masterclass in dub mixing techniques many of which Adrian Sherwood pioneered.

In my late teens and early 20s, Adrian Sherwood's work impacted on me more than anything I had previously heard and made me think about sonic possibilities in a completely new way. I would buy any record he had been involved with unheard and got into a lot of other artists purely because he had been involved with making their records. Indeed, my nom de plume "Twitch" came from a record he produced and our Optimo slogan "We Love Your Ears" came from the sleeve of a record he remixed. I hadn't listened to a lot of these records for many, many years and fell in love with them all over again while putting this together. It was a complete labour of love to do and a revelation to hear how fresh and wild this music still sounds.

The tracks are mostly mixed together but this podcast really isn't about my mixing at all - it's all about the 25 sonic missives included on it (several of the tracks are different versions of the same rhythm edited together). All the tracks were taken from vinyl so any unintended sonic imperfections are a result of the source records having been played countless times in the past.

This is part 2 of this podcast. Part 1 which focuses on his more electronic wild side (Tackhead, Fats Comet, Keith LeBlanc etc.) is now available here - http://soundcloud.com/alexchase/ohm-dedication-series-2-jd
Should you so desire, the 2 podcasts can be synced together to provide one continuous mix of around 3 and a half hours.

As usual we aren't making a track listing available for the podcast, simply because we feel that knowing the contents often precludes actually listening to it. But, if you want to know what anything is, feel free to get in touch and I will let you know. The mix is a 320kbps mp3 (230mb) and is 101 minutes long.

Optimo Podcast 12 - Adrian Sherwood On U Sound mix part 2 (dub)

Hot on the heels of podcast 13 comes this one to celebrate 50 years of Jamaican independence. It was recorded live at the Sub Club, Glasgow on Sunday 29th July 2012 and is an edit of the 4 hours of Jamaican music played that night. Twitch did a one off night of all Jamaican music in 2011, that time only playing 7" singles and had so much fun that we decided to make it an annual event, this time allowing a few 12"s and album tracks in there and giving the night a name - Bucky Skank - named after a Lee "Scratch" Perry song. There is a very popular fortified wine on the West coast of Scotland called Buckfast that is known locally as Buckie so it seemed the perfect name. Twitch will also be launching a Bucky Skank record label soon to release his and others takes on Jamaican dancehall. It won't be a very prolific label.

Alongside the records there was a Roland Space Echo, a dub siren, a very old percussion synthesiser and Maschine, used to trigger various sounds and vocal samples. JD Twitch was playing the records and triggering the samples while JG Wilkes was operating the Space Echo, dub siren and percussion synth. Listening back, we probably overdid the sirens and bleeps in places, but hey, it sounded good on the night. 

Musically it is all over the place and spans 50 years of Jamaican (and British-Jamaican) music but not in any chronological or even logical order. Reggae purists may well be horrified, but whatever, it was one of the best nights we put on all year. I got to play so many records I adore and the atmosphere in The Sub Club was fantastic, bringing in a lot of people who had probably never set foot in the club in their lives before. There were a lot of big smiles all night. Normally when I finish a dj set I am quite wired but after playing this music for 4 hours with only a quick bolt to the toilet mid way I was incredibly relaxed (as were all the staff in the club). Rastafarians believe Reggae is the music to bring world peace and unite mankind and even my in built cynicism finds that hard to argue with.

You'll probably notice it starts off quite quietly and gets louder. This is simply due to the volume being turned up as the night went on and we thought it better to leave it how it was rather than mastering the audio. Mixing wise, well, there are a lot of crashing segues and some minimal mixing but this was most certainly a case of a night where the music was far more important than any technical prowess. Give me another ten years of doing this annually and maybe it will all be semi-seamlessly mixed.

I'll end on a controversial note. Over the years I've lost count of the number of times I've heard people say they hate Reggae or that when I've played a single Reggae song in a set it has ruined their night. Apart from "hate" being quite an extreme emotion to direct at music I've always been bewildered how anyone can dismiss an entire nation's music that is so varied, joyous and original and whose DNA has become woven into so much other music, especially here in the UK. Just as I'm always suspicious of anyone who is a Tory I'm suspicious of anyone who can "hate" the entire musical output of Jamaica. Either they haven't been listening very deeply or possibly there is a fundamental flaw in their musical soul?

Almost every track on this podcast was played from vinyl. Jamaican record pressings can be a little bit poor on occasion so there are a few tracks with quite low fidelity and the odd skipping record here and there. As usual we aren't making a track listing available for the podcast, simply because we feel that knowing the contents often precludes actually listening to it. But, if you want to know what anything is, feel free to get in touch and we will let you know. The mix is a 320kbps mp3 (330mb) and is 135 minutes long.

Optimo Podcast 14 - Bucky Skank (Jamaica 50) Live At The Sub Club, Glasgow

https://autonomousafrica.bandcamp.com/album/adaptations


A1 Superpitcher Adaptation
A2 Red Axes Adaptation

AA1 LAPS Adaptation
AA2 Esa Adaptation

 "In 2015 Superpitcher was invited to go on a safari in South Africa.  He stayed at the breathtaking Tanda Tula camp in Timbavati adjacent to the Kruger National Park.

Apart from being stunned by the untouched nature of the area, he was also blown away one evening by a performance of the Tanda Tula staff choir. He was so touched by their folk songs and beautiful Shangaan language that he decided to record and produce a CD for them to sell in the camp's shop, free of charge with all proceeds going to the choir members.  This recording has since enabled guests from around the world to take the captivating voices of the Tanda Tula Choir home with them.

Not much later, Superpitcher approached Autonomous Africa with the idea of us putting out a remix EP.  It contains four very different but somehow complementary remixes from Superpitcher, LAPS, Red Axes and Esa.

All profits from this release will be split between Tanda Tula Choir and the International Library of African Music. Founded by ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey in 1954, ILAM is an an organisation dedicated to the preservation and study of African music.”

Autonomous Africa 009 - Tanda Tula Choir - Adaptations by Superpitcher, Red Axes, LAPS & Esa

I'm going to upload a series of 'mixes' over the coming weeks of music that I find particularly calming. I will try to make these one hour sessions filled with beautiful music that is helpful and calming to listen to while we get through this extraordinarily hard time. The music here definitely helps me feel less anxious. I have just segued it together so the credit is really all due to the wonderful souls who made the tracks I used. It is also available as a 320 download. Tracklisting -

Takashi Kokubo - A Dream Sails Out To Sea part 1
Mkwaju Ensemble - Lemore
Hiroshi Yoshimura - 小川にそって
Yumiko Morioko - Rainbow Gate 
Haruomi Hosono - Fujitsubo
Inoyoama Land - Glass Chaim
Inoyama Land - Pokala (remix)
Popol Vuh - Ah!
Justus Köhncke and Fred Heimermann - Albatros
Nuno Canavarro - Blu Terra
Erik Satie - Gnossienne No. 1
World Standard - Rozo, Du Pecoj
Testpattern - Souvenir Glacé

JD Twitch - Tranquility Mix 1

Here is the 2nd in a series of 'mixes' I intend to make over the coming weeks of music that I find particularly tranquil. I will try to make these one hour sessions filled with beautiful music that is helpful and calming to listen to while we get through this extraordinarily hard time. The music here definitely helps me feel less anxious. I have taken a slightly different approach on this one and it does feature some beats later in the mix, so feedback welcome on whether this one has the desired effect. It is also available as a 320 download. 

Tracklisting -

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (piano version)
Bill Evans Trio - Peace Piece
Eden Ahbez - The Wanderer
Popol Vuh - We Know About The Need
Gaelic Psalms From The Hebrides Of Scotland - Psalm 62
Geinoh Yamashirogumi - 合唱刈干切唄
David Cunningham - Blue River
Inoyama Land - Anatano Yushoku No Tameni
Raymond Scott - Sleepy Time
Sheila Chandra - Quiet 1
Sheila Chandra - Quiet 6
Resili - Corrie Caves
Dettinger - Oasis A3
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

JD Twitch - Tranquility Mix 2

From the "Poptimo" side of the Optimo sound, the first in a series of weekend mixes of music for partying, in isolation. Max tempo - 111bpm. Available to download as a 320 mp3.

JD Twitch - (Isolating) House Party mix 1

Here is the 3rd in a series of 'mixes' I intend to make over the coming weeks of music that I find particularly tranquil. I will try to make these one hour sessions filled with beautiful music that is helpful and calming to listen to while we get through this extraordinarily hard time. It is also available as a 320 download. 

Tracklisting -

Popol Vuh - Aguirre I
Peter Gabriel - With This Love (Choir)
Nowicki - Ostrich Dust Bath
Dennis Young - Voices Within
Alice Coltrane - Om Shanti
Reinhard Flatischler - Angkor Wat (intro)
Elodie Lauten - Prelude
Virginia Astley - A Summer Long Since Passed
Henri Texier - Luce D'Alba (edit)
Tony Hymas - Lullaby
Tomita - Clair De Lune
Kid 606 - Temptation 
Elodie Lauten - Flow
Ozo - Anambra

JD Twitch - Tranquility Mix 3

From the "Poptimo" side of the Optimo sound, the second in a series of weekend mixes of music for partying, in isolation. Available to download as a 320 mp3.

JD Twitch - (Isolating) House Party mix 2

First in an occasional series of hour long selctions of Rock 'n Roll 7"s. This was originally one of my NTS Radio shows so some of you might have heard it before, but here it is without voiceover. All but one track is from the 1950s, and apologies for the sound quality on some of them but several are original era 7"s that have had a long life and a lot of plays. Not, mixed, just segued. Available to download as a 320mp3.

JD Twitch - It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)

Here is the 4th in a series of mixes of music that I find particularly tranquil. It is an approximately one hour session filled with music that I think is beautiful and calming to listen to. It is also available as a 320 download. Tracklisting to follow.

JD Twitch - Tranquility Mix 4

This Was Belgium 1987-89 - 2 hours of New Beat favourites

New Beat was born and initially exploded in 1987, went supernova (in Belgium) in 1988 and then the formula morphed a bit and was declared dead in 1989. It was slow and initially all about the atmosphere with industrial strength beats - the main form of rhythmic propulsion being the pounding kick and heavy snare. It was often mainly instrumental and when there was lyrical content it often became more about slogans and giving commands - "Move Your Ass And Feel The Beat!", "Let There Be Brightness!", "Shout Out Loud!". While not really New Beat, it's no surprise Technotronic's "Pump Up Jam" was produced by a crew who had produced a ton of New Beat gems.

In 1989 one of New Beat's founders, Marc Grouls said "New Beat is atmosphere, beats, no lyrics, and sure as hell not commercial!!!!!" But, it was already too late. A zillion bandwagon jumpers had diluted the music and flooded the market with too many sub standard 12" singles. New Beat temple, the legendary Boccaccio nightclub, in Destelbergen, near Ghent, had been closed down and it looked like it was all over, but really, it was just the beginning. New Beat morphed into Hard Beat (many of the tracks on this mix are from the Hard Beat era) which quickly morphed into Belgian Rave, which was huge and hugely influential in the UK and is an often overlooked part of the DNA of UK Hardcore, and all that came after. Then from Ghent, R&S Records established itself as thee European Techno label and a huge wave of incredible Techno records emanated from it and many other mighty Belgian labels, but that is another story. 

New Beat arrived just as I first started DJing and I played a lot of it in my DJ sets and built up connections with several of the leading Belgian labels who would send me 12" singles so I had records nobody else here had any idea even existed. I would compile New Beat charts for the music paper The NME which may have given the impression there was a thriving New Beat scene in Scotland. The reality was very different; people here, many of whom would embrace the rave just a little while later never really took to it in a big way.

This mix is comprised of many of my personal favourites that I have loved since they came out (and two I missed at the time and only heard later). I think the tracks have aged like a fine wine, often sounding as good if not better today as they did then. There is definitely a faint whiff of fromage and a big dollop of stoopid in several of these tracks. Of course, it is not all about the cheese and many of these adhere to the "atmosphere, beats, no lyrics, and sure as hell not commercial" rule mentioned above. Some of the best programmed 303 Acid basslines ever made can be heard here along with transcendental hypno synths and those Belgian beats going on and on....! Slow and low, from under 100bpm up to 116, New Beat doesn't chug, it swings in a very distinct way. If you get to see any videos of Belgian clubs of the era, the way people moved to this music is incredible and so different to any dancing we see today.

Many of these tracks are made by the same people under various aliases, which will perhaps be audibly evident. Most of the names have been forgotten, if they were ever even known outside their native Belgium at all, but all are legends to me. 

This mix isn't any kind of attempt to tell the story of New Beat but rather a mix 33 of my favourite 12" singles from that era showing many of the various strains of the New Beat and Hard Beat sound. A lot of love went into this and I hope someone somewhere discovers this music for the first time and falls in love with it as I did way back when. This was Belgium!

This Was Belgium 1987-89 - 2 hours of New Beat favourites

Slightly edited NTS Show from 30/06/20. Available to download.

if you enjoy this (and other mixes i upload), please consider donating to -

Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER) is a Scottish strategic racial equality charity, based in Glasgow who are focused on working to eliminate racial discrimination and harassment and promote racial justice across Scotland. Read more at  - www.crer.scot. Direct donate at - https://www.crer.scot/about-crer 

Positive Housing In Action is an anti-racist refugee and migrant homelessness charity working together with social landlords, non profits and others to enable families and individuals to rebuild their lives, and promote refugee friendly communities. Read more at - www.paih.org Direct donate at - https://www.paypal.com/uk/fundraiser/charity/133777

Thank you.

JD Twitch - NTS Live 30/06/20 Black Lives Matter Solidarity

I was blown away by Steve McQueen's recent Small Axe series of films on BBC1. One of them, Lovers Rock, featured a life affirming scene using Janet Kay's "Silly Games", to incredible effect. "Silly Games" is an all time favourite of mine (see below if interested) and one night recently I couldn't sleep so decided to take the A Cappella singing from the film and weld it to Dennis Bovell's dub mix of "Silly Games". Easier said than done, it took hours and hours and did not help me sleep as it was lunch time when I finished. I only ever did it for my own amusement but played it on my NTS Radio show and have been inundated with requests for it, so here it is. If you don't know the original, which got to no. 2 in the UK Top 40 in 1979, and is now a bona fide evergreen classic, I thoroughly recommend checking it out.


"Silly Games" by Janet Kay is one of my all time favourite songs; a definite desert island disc. In the summer of 1979 it was ubiquitous and seemed to be on the radio all the time. I was just falling deeply in love with pop music and this song in particular stood out, both for myself and my sister, and indeed to this day, whenever I hear Silly Games I think of her and that glorious summer spent listening to the radio all day, every day.

In 1979, I didn’t know "Silly Games" was Reggae, let alone Lovers Rock, but it was the catalyst for me falling in love with Jamaican music in all its myriad forms which is a passion that has only grown as the years have passed.

Incidentally, 1979 was such a formative year for me and music that looking at the top 100 most popular hits in the UK singles music charts in 1979 I note that nearly a third of them have featured in my DJ sets over the years - http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/top-100-1979.shtml

"Silly Games" was written and produced by Dennis Bovell, a genuine UK music legend who I am deeply honoured to have had appear on Optimo Music on two occasions. He features in the Lovers Rock episode of Small Axe and indeed you can hear his deep, booming bass heavy voice on this version. As stated, this version was done purely for my own amusement and I don't want to take anything away from the wonderful Janet Kay whose voice is such a wondrous and integral part of what makes "Silly Games" such a great, timeless song.

Janet Kay - Silly Games (JD Twitch Small Axe Version)

I started DJ'ing in 1987, am 50% of Optimo (Espacio) and I also run the Optimo Music record label.


“We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.”
Mark Vonnegut

Email - kmcivor@me.com

Optimo Music Soundcloud here - https://soundcloud.com/optimo-music

DJ bookings (worldwide) - caroline@spunoutagency.com



Press - optimopr@mac.com


Discography - http://www.optimo.co.uk/discography/

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