Optimo
Encyclopedia
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
at the Sub Club
Sub club
The Sub Club is a club and music venue located at 22 Jamaica Street in Glasgow, Scotland. It opened 1 April 1987 and is the longest running underground dance club in the world. The basement space can legally hold up to 400 people. In 2008 it was voted the 10th best club in the world by Resident...
on Jamaica Street, as well as a collective moniker for the night's resident DJ duo. Having run every week since it was founded in 1997, on Thursday 11 March 2010, it was announced on the official facebook page that the weekly nights would come to an end on Sunday 25 April 2010. However, JD Twitch and JG Wilkes would continue to tour, promote and release music as Optimo.
Often known simply as "Optimo," the club takes its name from the eponymous Liquid Liquid
Liquid Liquid
Liquid Liquid is a New York City post-punk, post-disco band, originally active from 1980 to 1983. They are perhaps best known for their track, "Cavern", which was covered by the Sugar Hill Records house band as the backing track for Grandmaster + Melle Mel's old school rap classic, "White Lines "...
song and 1983 EP title. JD Twitch and JG Wilkes (real names Keith McIvor and Jonnie Wilkes), the club's founders and resident DJs, are also collectively known as Optimo and have toured in Europe, America, and Japan and released music under that name. Renowned for its diverse music policy, the club retains a reputation for adventurous innovation and hedonism. The technical side of the club has been written about in the Guardian. Twitch and Wilkes were described by Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
in 2006 as being "one of the best DJ duos going right now."
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
's "Essential Mix
Essential Mix
The Essential Mix is a weekly radio show on BBC Radio 1 currently broadcast between 03:00 and 05:00 Saturday morning. Originally broadcast on 30 October 1993, The Essential Mix features contemporary DJs and music producers of electronic dance music....
."
Optimo regularly receives reviews from the media. For example, The Skinny published an article in December 2006 saying that Optimo is "still one of Scotland's best and most charismatic nights" and awarded it a "shiny gold star." In another article from the same magazine, the Optimo DJs were described as having a "special talent for mixing every genre under the sun."
Many well established music artists have played at Optimo. Examples include Cut Copy
Cut Copy
Cut Copy are an Australian electronic band formed in 2001 by Dan Whitford on vocals, keyboard and guitar. Other members are Tim Hoey on guitar and sampler, Ben Browning on bass guitar and Mitchell Scott on drums. Their second album, In Ghost Colours peaked at number-one on the ARIA Albums Chart in...
, Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand (band)
Franz Ferdinand are a Scottish post-punk revival band formed in Glasgow in 2002. The band is composed of Alex Kapranos , Bob Hardy , Nick McCarthy , and Paul Thomson .The band first experienced chart success when their second single, "Take Me Out", reached #3 in...
, The Rapture
The Rapture (band)
The Rapture is an Indie rock band based in New York City. The band mixes influences from many genres including post-punk, acid house, disco, electronica and rock, pioneering the post-punk revival genre...
, Peaches
Peaches (musician)
Merrill Beth Nisker , better known by her stage name Peaches, is a Canadian electronic musician and performance artist who lives in Berlin, Germany. Her songs are noted for disregarding traditional gender norms and their use of sexually explicit lyrics...
, Isolée
Isolée
Isolée is microhouse artist Rajko Müller. Isolée is a minimalist house producer whose music is reminisent of indie electronic pop music of the early eighties and ambient techno from a decade on. Isolée is credited with creating the very first microhouse record to reach the club charts...
, Shitdisco
Shitdisco
Shitdisco, was a Dance-punk band from Glasgow, Scotland. They were formed in 2003 while studying at the Glasgow School of Art. Their first single "Disco Blood"/"I Know Kung Fu" was released in December 2005 and sold out quickly. They are signed to record label Fierce Panda...
, Chicks on Speed
Chicks on Speed
Chicks on Speed is a multi-national musical ensemble, formed in Munich in 1997, when members Melissa Logan, Kiki Moorse and Alex Murray-Leslie met at the Academy of Fine Arts....
, Liquid Liquid
Liquid Liquid
Liquid Liquid is a New York City post-punk, post-disco band, originally active from 1980 to 1983. They are perhaps best known for their track, "Cavern", which was covered by the Sugar Hill Records house band as the backing track for Grandmaster + Melle Mel's old school rap classic, "White Lines "...
, LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem was a prominent American dance-punk band from New York City. It was fronted by American singer-songwriter and producer James Murphy, co-founder of record label DFA Records...
, Hot Chip
Hot Chip
Hot Chip are an English electronic indie band. They have released four studio albums—Coming on Strong, The Warning, Made in the Dark and One Life Stand.-Formation:...
, Richie Hawtin
Richie Hawtin
Richard Hawtin is an English-Canadian electronic musician and DJ who was an influential part of Detroit techno's second wave of artists in the early 1990s and a leading exponent of Minimal techno since the mid 1990s...
, The Long Blondes
The Long Blondes
The Long Blondes were a five-piece English indie rock band formed in Sheffield, United Kingdom in 2003 by Dorian Cox , Reenie Hollis , Emma Chaplin , Kate Jackson and Screech Louder .After several critically...
, The Presets
The Presets
The Presets are an Australian electronic duo formed in 2003, consisting of Julian Hamilton on vocals and keyboards, and Kim Moyes on drums and keyboards. They released their debut album Beams in 2005 to positive critical response. Their 2008 release Apocalypso debuted at number-one on the ARIA...
, Voxtrot
Voxtrot
Voxtrot was an indie pop band from Austin, Texas, USA. Their first recordings were released in 2003 and their final shows were in June 2010.-Biography:Voxtrot was formed in Austin, Texas by singer/songwriter Ramesh Srivastava in the early 2000s...
,, TV on the Radio
TV on the Radio
TV on the Radio is an American art rock band formed in 2001 in Brooklyn, New York, whose music spans numerous diverse genres, from post-punk to electro and free jazz to soul music....
, The Go! Team
The Go! Team
The Go! Team are a six-piece band from Brighton, England. They combine indie rock and garage rock with a mixture of blaxploitation and Bollywood soundtracks, double dutch chants, old school hip hop and distorted guitars similar to the style of Sonic Youth. Their songs are a mix of live...
, The Kills
The Kills
The Kills is a rock band formed by American singer Alison Mosshart and British guitarist Jamie Hince . Their first three albums, Keep On Your Mean Side, No Wow, and Midnight Boom, have garnered much critical praise...
, Sons and Daughters
Sons and Daughters (band)
Sons and Daughters are a rock band from Glasgow, Scotland.-Biography:Conceived while on tour with Arab Strap in 2001, Sons and Daughters was initially Adele Bethel's creation...
, Ivan Smagghe
Ivan Smagghe
Ivan Smagghe is a French DJ and producer. He was originally known as Ivan Rough Trade, after his job in the Rough Trade record store in Paris. His musical style has been described as electrohouse and "minimal electro.". Smagghe's Death Disco compilation was a key release in the electroclash...
and Datarock
Datarock
Datarock, derived from the Norwegian word for computer – datamaskin and the word rock , is a Norwegian electro rock band. The band formed in 2000 as Fredrik Saroea, Ketil Mosnes and Kevin O'Brien and soon hired Tom Mæland. O'Brien and Mæland later left the band, but the duo of Saroea and Mosnes...
.
Record label
Optimo started a new record label called Optimo Music in January 2009, with a 7" of Big Ned's "Bad Angel/Killer". Other releases include Den Haan, Dollskabeat, Divorce, Older Lover, Chris Carter and Factory Floor. Prior to this Optimo owned the Optimo Singles Club And Related Recordings (OSCARR) label, having released records by Creme Du Menthe, Park Attack, Bis, Pro Forma and Findo Gask.Mix albums
- How To Kill The DJ (Part Two) - Various (2004) Kill the DJ/Tigersushi RecordsTigersushi RecordsTigersushi Records is an independent record label based in Paris, France. They have released music by MU, Ivan Smagghe, Poni Hoax and John Tejada, among others.-External links:* *...
- Optimo Present Psyche Out - Various (2005) Eskimo Recordings
- Walkabout - Various (2006) Mule Musiq
- Sub Club 20 Years Underground - Various (2008) Soma
- Sleepwalk - Various (2008) Domino
- Fabric 52Fabric 52Fabric 52 is a 2010 album by JD Twitch and Jonnie Wilkes under their night club's name, Optimo . The album was released as part of the Fabric Mix Series.-Track listing:# Fad Gadget - Lady Shave - Mute...
- Various (2010) FabricFabric (club)Fabric is a nightclub in London, United Kingdom. It was voted number 1 in DJ Magazine's "Top 100 Clubs in the World" poll in 2007 and number 2 in 2008, 2009 and 2010...