Optimo

it does sound great, i wonder if i can obtain a copy from the chaps - will investigate

I can't believe that a club with *that* music policy is so popular, how on earth has it worked so well? Lauren, what's their secret? And why haven't clubs all over Britain followed suit?

The first I heard of it was in the business pages of The Sun (!) where they mentioned how the djs hung a mic over the crowd dancing, sampled them, made a song out of the noise and played it back out minutes later. Unreal.

Also, is it always on a Sunday? I thought it was a Friday night thing.

Had that impression the 2 years i spent in Glasgow. The rest of scotland was full of hardcore rave/gabber kids.

then one week three hundred people turned up which we thought was a fluke, but the next week even more turned up and it continued to grow from there. our home, the sub club burned down and we were in temporary homes for three years but returned back 'home' a few months ago. since then it has gone even more ballistic. last sunday there was a blizzard going on outside and we expected it to be really quiet but we had the biggest crowd we have ever had and had to turn a couple of hundred away. it's insane, i tell ya!

the really strange thing for me is that we have a really young crowd who will freak to records they don't know from before they were born! i guess people are bored and want more from their night out. people in scotland also party like their lives depend on it!

we have been lumped in with electroc(l)a$h, post punk, bootlegs, too many djs etc but really, we are none of these things. i follow music, not what anyone else does and doing this in relative isolation up in scotland has been great for us. it means we don't belong to any scene and will always operate outside what is happening in the media. as fads come and go, we will still be here just playing music.

one of the reasons it might have worked is that after ten years of being techno djs, myself and my partner really know how to work a crowd so even though we play all types of music, we put it together in quite an energetic way and mix records that should never work together. i mean who'd have thought mo tucker kept such good time but it's possible to mix live the whole of 'waiting for my man' over some slamming techno track . likewise johnny cash's 'personal jesus' or a whole multitude of other songs. also, using a powerbook live lets me do things that leave people wondering 'how did he do that?'. but most importantly, it's fun - i might play reallly obscure records from the sun city girls, billy childish, the ze or 99 label or whatever but i always know when it is time to give the crowd a dose of fun.

i hope i don't come across all arrogant here. i'm not but i truly love what i do and it is the most enjoyable thing i have ever done in my whole life.

and finally, it CAN work elsewhere - we have taken optimo to new york, paris, helsinki, belfast, munich and stockholm and it worked every time.

if any ILM'ers ever come and don't enjoy themselves i will personally refund their costs for getting here.

presumptuous? never

What is it about this song? Erol Alkan (of Trash) namechecks it in this month's Jockey Slut. I really must try to make it sometime. I missed thema at Auto too, despite being there. I was probably stuck in the murderous beer queue. Unfortunately whenever I'm up in Glasgow I'm usually travelling back down south on a Sunday. I will get there though.

that's what really struck me about the night. the crowd went mad whether they knew a track or not. there is no way to manufacture that kind of enthusiasm, and it's really exciting to see.

gygax, how's the old fmbb doing?

i was in thinking today of crazy things: optimo global tastemaker early 2000s nostalgia. but in a very chris marker exotica way. crazy things.

yes it is.

(i thk i know wht she looks like, really pretty, bowl cut, i thk i saw her at the latest 'mars hotel' gig.)

Next Optimo for me: The Go! Team one, I think. Would like to do Clinic too but don't think I will.

New Year too.

So, when they confirm I have to find somewhere to live and move. And do NYE Optimo. I am sure it is possible somehow...

take the megabus, ronan.

i attended the 1999/2000 hogmanay optimo at the art school..... i don't remember a single thing except a friend of mine stealing an entire case of mini tonic bottles.

I got my benefit Optimo/DFA shit in the mail the other day!

Me too, great shirt.

this is cool - https://www.theransomnote.com/music/news/a-rough-guide-to-optimo-music-selectors-select/

Just linked a couple of posts back!

bah yes apologies manuel

Thank you for everything DJ Twitch.

Wishing you a peaceful journey through the cosmos.

Sad news. Fucking sad news ;_;

Been looking for links to any of the classic Rinse Mixes of theirs -- would really love to hear some of that old patter right now. All I found from a Soundcloud search is a very limited selection hosted by the Rinse account, which I will dig through, and a few uploads by other accounts which don't seem to load for me at all?

Realizing now that most of the patter is JG Wilkes, ah well. Maybe stirmonster didn’t really fuck with the Rinse shows so much?

wish I'd read stirmonster's first post in this thread back when he posted it: Optimo

maybe I wouldn't have waited ten years to see Optimo play

glad I did manage it - was a good time

rest in peace

I found a few shows in my archives and uploaded this work of the DJ selector canon. (If there's any issue I'll take it down forthwith.)

The final Rinse show.

https://soundcloud.com/daniel-viborg/optimo-20151202-rinse-final-show

nice - thank you!

For sure!

Found a couple more classic (non-Rinse) mixes from stirmonster, the “Real” Trance Mix and the Bucky Skank 2014 Mix. But in order to put them up on SoundCloud I’d have to pay for it. Damn they’re stingy.

Seems there’s fairly limited interest here anyway but if anyone feels a hankering for the goods I can idk share them on Soulseek or something.

Haha he just dropped Super Sharp Shooter boh

i fairly stupidly still have a paid Soundcloud account - I can put them up if you send them to me somehow

We are working on a repository of Optimo Mixes. I may be able to share here later. If you send me a message, I can give you access to it and anything missing can be linked to from there.

Hopefully be able to open it out more people soon.

!!!

please keep us abreast, would be nice to have some of these!!

Yes, just waiting on a couple of permissions.

Here you go. This is a list of over 200 Optimo mixes with links to listen to nearly all of them. You might need to request access, but I can turn this around pretty quickly. If you put a note on the request to let me know you are on ilm, then that'll help.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Xr1i9z4hFOlm9v6dNofku0IuHsHClGa4FSa05i-ztZE/edit?usp=sharing

If you've got something that isnt on the list, then drop me an email and we can add it. We're missing recordings of Tape 1 and Tape 2 and Welcome To Studio Mule. Although Tapes 1 and 2 might be updated in the near future.

amazing! thank you :)

:O

whooooa!

Thank you to those compiling the mixes. I have been listening again to the commercially available ones I have on CD: How to kill the DJ (part 2),
Psyche Out, Walkabout, the Betty Botox edits compilation and Sleepwalking. Floods of fond memories come to me on each.

Wow this is wonderful to see!

here's the Weatherall 6Music tribute mix, bundled with Jonnie's tribute mix to Keith.

I have a bunch of 2017-2024 mixes not on the spreadsheet too, Griff, including 20-odd NTS shows. Drop an email to K1t who you recently approved if these might be actual holes, not just "not added yet."

thanks for sharing, much appreciated.

This is an incredible resource, thank you so much for compiling it. Sent a request to view if that's ok

Thanks, Griff!

i keep forgetting that the betty botox comp is an optimo collection.

Ah yes, Betty, stir's most attractive creation.*

https://beatsinspace.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Betty20Botox.pictClipping.jpg

I note that photo didn't make it into any of the tributes or memorial! :-)

haha .. wow, never seen that before ..

I had to defend her honour once on Last.FM when someone called her 'ugly'. It's still there actually, just looked.

https://www.last.fm/music/Betty+Botox

iirc those betty botox edits are essentially just the original track but with the tempos (tempi?) regularised to be mixable (a great service!)

Some of them are more re-edited or extended than others.

Yes you're right ^

absolutely love this new song from two Optimo Music alumni...

https://huntleyspalmers.bandcamp.com/album/tony-morris-isa-gordon

likewise, Tony Morris and another Optimo associate frenchbloke...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNEhluvPtGU

very Weatherall esque

New album on the Optimo label coming:

https://naturalmagic.bandcamp.com/album/ii

With this note:

It’s with great pride that we announce the long-awaited sophomore album from Portland-based duo Natural Magic on Optimo Music. This was the final vinyl release that Keith McIvor aka JD Twitch put into production before his untimely departure in late September this year.

Having been a long time lover of everything krautrock, space rock, experimental and psychedelic it seems more than fitting that he leaves us this LP as his parting gift; because this sublime album is all these things wrapped up into one…and much more.

Today we proudly present the first of two singles from the album. Clocking in at almost 8 minutes, “Don’t Look Back” is a uniquely transportive blend of shoegaze, psychedelia and ethereal electronics.

The album, available for pre-order now, will be released on 30th January 2026.

Thanks must go to Kompakt for helping get the album over the finishing line and letting it see the light of day on Optimo Music as Keith would have wished.

Much love x

Oh that's cool. I had to double-check but part of Natural Magic is Matthew Quiet who I met when I visited Portland in 2010. Just looked at my message history with him and the first message was me noting I was visiting a week after Twitch was due to play his party there.

good to see them carrying on that part of his legacy, look forward to hearing it

saw jonnie play again last weekend in london, hope he gets to rest up at some point cos he must be shattered tbh, but it was great and felt like not quite such a heavy emotional thing as seeing him a couple of months ago

I have a natural magic 12” it’s quite good

A lovely tribute mix to stir from his good friend CLAIR.

https://www.nts.live/shows/peace-2025/episodes/peace-2025-peace-for-jd-twitch-w-clair-30th-december-2025

Glorious new mix from Jonnie here: https://soundcloud.com/pdaberlin/optimo-pda-25

Lol how he lets "Domina (Maurizio Mix)" just go ahead and play through to the second part. Whenever I played that I'd always feel like I had to mix out before that happened. It's great to hear the hard part though. Maybe Jonnie went for a quick smoke :D

As linked a few posts back by me, today is the release date of the second Natural Magic album, and the final album stir oversaw for release on Optimo:

https://naturalmagic.bandcamp.com/album/ii

It's a lovely listen this evening, and a good way to think of him once more -- a last gift from him to us all.

That is is a very lovely release.