The Glasgow duo’s latest mix finds connections between German minimal, seventies industrial and even Japanese art metal.

DJ team Twitch and Jonnie Wilkes, aka Optimo, are known for their Glasgow club night of the name. Don't expect easy club hits at a night at Optimo. Depending on the duo's mood, the sound will veer from Iggy Pop to post punk, electro to fifties swing and anything in between. "Serious DJs would come and watch in horror while several times,” says their bio. “Seasoned trainspotters would come up to Twitch and tell him 'You've lost the plot' or 'You can't play this in the Sub Club - it's sacrilege! People would get really angry about it, which of course only fuelled the flames!"

These days Optimo is taking the sound to the world with dates across Europe, America and Japan. And while Twitch and Wilkes remain the residents, each week Glasgow is treated to Optimo guests, who in the past have included the likes of ESG, Grace Jones, LCD Soundsystem, Lee Perry, Atom Heart, Luciano, Four Tet and Justus Kohncke.

‘Walkabout’ takes a similarly uneasy approach to the DJ mix, finding connections between German minimal (Grungerman, Thomas Brinkmann), experimental techno (Smith and Hack) and even Japanese art metal (Boris). But the primary mood seems to be a historical one, with the mix focusing on rare nineties techno abstractions from 6K, Pan Sonic and Like a Tim and even looking back to the seventies with cuts by Throbbing Gristle (the mix is named after Walkabout from TG’s 1979 LP ‘20 Jazz Funk Greats’) and Suicide (‘Radiation’ is the B-side of their 1979 EP ‘Dream Baby Dream’.)

Optimo 'Walkabout' track

1. Throbbing Gristle - Walkabout [Mute/Industrial]
2. Grungerman - Grungerman [Profan]
3. Pansonic - Hapatus [MUTE]
4. Databrain - Electrofrogs [Pin-Up Records]
5. Like A Tim - Aibe Stracie [Djax]
6. Lenny Dee & Nicolai Vorkapich - The Virus [Nugroove/Empire Music Werks]
7. Philus - Kuvio 3 [Sahko]
8. Shane Berry - Fillertet 2 [Trapez]
9. Boris - My Machine [Diwphalanx]
10. Godsy - The Grass Runs Red [Whatever We Want Records]
11. Suicide - Radiation [Ze Records]
12. Eventell and Metaboman - Control a Zoid [Musik Krause]
13. Thomas Brinkmann - Momomexico [Max Ernst]
14. 6k - Tighten [Pi Recordings]
15. Marc Houle - Bay of Figs [Minus]
16. Herbert - Moving Like A Train (Smith & Hack Remix) [Studio K7]
17. Black Dice - Manoman [DFA]

‘Walkabout’ mixed by Optimo will be released on Mule Electronic on April 30th, 2007. 1 Comment