Flora Pitrolo singles out music by Japan’s Yellow Magic Orchestra, Spain’s Finis Africae and Italy’s Liguria region to Glagow via JD Twitch.
Before techno and house exploded in Glasgow under the stewardship of the club night Pure, one its residents, Keith ‘JD Twitch’ McIvor, was playing industrial and new wave records to an unappreciative audience. Fast forward three decades and much has changed. Having provided the four to the floor groundwork through his long residency at Pure, McIvor courted a more diverse sound at Glasgow institution Optimo (Espacio) alongside JG Wilkes and continues to curate left of centre music, from the past and present, under the Optimo name.
The Vinyl Factory will release a compilation of early ‘80s synth, industrial and cold wave classics picked by the Optimo man.
Richard Brophy’s column returns and features discussion with JD Twitch, Mick Wills, Alessandro Adriani, Macadam Mambo and more regarding the emergence of a new trend of re-edits.
A slab of proto-hardcore from the Bryn Jones archives will land on JD Twitch’s label in January.
General Ludd, Midland, and Auntie Flo join JD Twitch for the latest installment of the charity-focused 12″ series.
“There is no such thing as tech house, there is no such thing as deep house, there is simply house music, good or bad.” It’s debatable whether this statement on the front page of the We Play House website from founder Red D is true or not, but it certainly makes a music journalist’s job pretty redundant. Fortunately, despite the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach that We Play House utilize in the above blurb, it appears that they’re also not opposed to paying homage to a certain genre or time period. Thus we have the first in a series of Our Beat Is Still New releases that pay tribute to Belgian New Beat, the late 80s Belgian acid house and post-industrial rave tinged productions that provided a tweaked out, sexually explicit warehouse alternative to the more mainstream UK’s Eurobeat. Across four planned 12” releases, the label will call on some of their New Beat loving contemporaries, with this inaugural set featuring Juju & Jordash, JD Twitch, Metrobox and the promise of a tantalizing famous anonymous producer.
Preview JD Twitch, Auntie Flo and Midland’s contributions to this year’s Autonomous Africa EP.
Suzanne Kraft and JD Twitch contribute to the throbbing EBM of a new Soft Metals jam.
There has always been something special about the underground music scene in Glasgow. Ever since the post-punk boom of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Scotland’s second city has danced to a different tune. In the last two decades alone the city has been responsible for a dizzying array of inspirational bands, DJs, club nights, labels and producers. The city’s nightlife, in particular, rivals anything found outside of London, and its small, compact nature almost makes it more attractive than the sprawling scene found in the UK’s capitol city. This vibrancy is no fluke; it’s a product of two typically Glaswegian traits – a deep-rooted hedonism combined with a no-nonsense approach to life. If they can dance all night, they will, but the music has to be spot on. For the most part over the last couple of decades, it has been.
The long-running Glasgow Underground label will launch a new conceptual mix series next month with Optimo’s JD Twitch at the helm.
Veteran Scottish producers Neil Landstrumm and JD Twitch will revisit their Doubleheart collaborative project with Roca, a four track EP set for release on Dutch label Shipwrec.
The significant contribution of Belgium to modern day electronic music will be explored fully on a forthcoming documentary entitled The Sound Of Belgium.
Two generations of Glaswegian club royalty join forces in the name of charity on a forthcoming vinyl-only EP featuring afro-tinged edits from Optimo Espacio’s JD Twitch and Huntleys & Palmers’ Auntie Flo.
Further to the announcement of Warp releasing the second album from Brooklyn duo The Hundred In The Hands comes the pulse-racing news that the label have called on Andy Stott and JD Twitch to remix lead single “Keep It Low”.
As we revealed last week, Juno Plus was handed the reins for curating a free seven inch featuring exclusive tracks from FaltyDL and JD Twitch, which our office partners Juno Records are giving away with any order over the festive period.