MIDLAND - Duster Ep - Aus Music

2014 has been a continuation of what was a very busy and successful 2013 for Midland. Having set up his own imprint, Graded, last year he has gone on to contribute to JD Twitch's Autonomous Africa project, a yearly charity release which raises money for different African Charities. This has been swiftly followed up by the release of 'Before We leave' on Phonica White - the label that fathered his first solo release. And it doesn't stop there as we welcome Midland back for the 'Duster EP,' out on 15th September.
The secret to Midland’s success perhaps lies in his ability to keep his listeners guessing; with each new release, a new sound palette is presented, always adding more colour to his catalogue. This new EP is no exception as this time he draws out immersive pads and understated melody over the top of percussive grit, in parts channeling some of that irresistible Autonomous Africa flavour.
The release has already garnered support DJs and radio alike with Jamie XX playing out ‘Reflex’ on both his recent Boiler Room and BBC Radio 1 Guest mix, while another early unveiling of 'Pitch Drift' dropped recently on Benji B's show.


Tracklist:

A. Duster
B1. Reflex
B2. Pitch Drift

Boot & Tax per Discosafari: nuovo podcast!

Boot & Tax is the name of the self-effacing duo exploded at the end of 2013 with the Acido Ep on Optimo Trax, the offshoot label of JD Twitch’s Optimo Music for tracks aimed at DJs/dancefloors. Now the Milanese maestros are back on OT with the new bomb Fusci EP - 4 tracks in their own inimitable and distinctive style. Here's a fresh mix made just for Discosafari - what are you waiting for? Listen and download it!




Find below a small preview of what it has been said until now about Fusci EP by Boot & Tax:

"Boot & Tax return with their second EP following the success of the sold out "Acido" EP which received a multitude of plays from a plethora of djs in a profusion of discotheques.These Milanese maestros deliver four dance floor delights in their own inimitable and distinctive style. Working across a range of tempos and incorporating more of Boot's great vocalising they also manage to weave a Jaw's Harp solo in there and make it seem like a potential replacement for the TB 303."

on Optimo Trax

"JD Twitch seems to have an obsession with Italian music; amazingly, four of the first eight releases on the excellent - and typically hard to pin down - Optimo Trax imprint have come from Italian bands and producers. This second EP from Milanese twosome Boot & Trax fits into that category. It's as stylish and - on occasions - dark as you'd perhaps expect, variously being influenced by '80s industrial, fizzing post-punk, chugging Chicago house and strobelight electronica. There's naturally much to enjoy, from the hypnotic, left-of-centre Italian house revivalism of "Il Canto" and fuzzy "Occhi Blu", to the energetic, darkwave-meets-punk funk rush of the irrepressible title track."

on Juno

"Kinky Italian disco electronics from Cristian Croce and Claudio Brioschi aka Boot & Tax for Optimo Trax. They've got a neat line in wiggly triplets going down with the tribal cosmic trudge of 'Fusci' and the darker, wavier 'Occhi Blue', whilst 'Confuzed House' drops a shoulder to early Chicago proto house sounds you could imagien Ron Hardy spinning, and 'Il Canto' coins a kinda New Beat styled strut."

on Boomkat

"In December 2013 the sub-label of Optimo Music, Optimo Trax published a pump to the dance floor, the debut of the duo from Milan of Boot & Tax and the EP ‘Acido’, a track with success in many dance floors and in DJ sets of many artists, and now 4 new tracks arrive by Boot & Tax, another reference with great success, and the vinyl is Out of Stock on Juno, 4 tracks that continue with that distinctive, personal style and great variety of influences in their compositions for the sole purpose of making us dance, opening the EP with more than 7 minutes of dark and hypnotic ‘Fusci’ incorporating some vocals and guitars that trap us and make us mad; in ‘Confuzed House’ rhythms bring us more about Chicago House with the personal touch of the duo, another crazy track with some nice female laughter; dark, darkwave, post-punk on ‘Ochhi Blu’ excellent with more than 8 minutes, with vocals, bass and excellent guitar; and closing this excellent EP with ‘Il Canto’ with tribal rhythms, African percussion, tribal vocal loops, as a tribal dance. Killer release."

on Comos Las Grecas

FELIZOL & THE BOY - Like Cannibal Father Like Cannibal Son - Optimo Music

Optimo Music is usually known as a 12" label, but occasionally something rare and dangerous comes our way that compels us to release a full length album…

It's not exactly a dance album, although there is music you can dance to on it. It's more filmic in nature, with gads of references to wonderful directors like Kubrick and Carpenter that will enthrall a film buff, particularly if they're interested in electronic and dance music. There's a sleazy and unsettling feel to much of the tracks ("Tina Weymouth" is a sleaze-floor monster groove…), but we hope it will intrigue and delight!

The film references are directly relevant as Felizol and The Boy are film directors Yiannis Veslemes and Alexandros Voulgaris, who live in Athens, Greece and have composed music for numerous feature films. They also perform live in house clubs, heavy metal dungeons and hippy-friendly festivals…

They have this to say about their release: "We had a loose concept for this album and we compiled tracks that we've recorded the last 3 years that have to do with the cannibalism. Literally but also as a metaphor for the blessing and the tyranny of paying homage and influenced from music and films (and directors and musicians).

So these are songs about the agony of creating something new and personal when so much information and influences are fused in them." 

Tracklist:

01 Fungus
02 Tina Weymouth
03 Barry
04 The Boat Can Leave Now Tell The Crew
05 Giallo Greco
06 John Carpenter II
07 Like Cannibal Father Like Cannibal Son

NOO - Noo Ep - Optimo Music Disco Plate

Noo are Daze Dasen (aka Plastique De Reve) and Sami Liuski (aka Bangkok Impact / Putsch '79). This is a double A side 12" single (plus a digital bonus track that we couldn't fit on the 12" and still have maximum pressing volume). Built out of imaginative sampling combined with analogue hardware, these tracks are phenomenally produced, lush disco string fuelled epics that fully work their magic in a club setting. This is Modern disco, most definitely NOT Nu Disco.

OMD 01 - Noo - Noo EP

A)  The First Night

AA)  No More

Digital Bonus -
Why Don't You?



Optimo Music Disco Plate One will be released on Optimo Music as a two track 12" (3 track digital)  in May 2014. Distribution by Kompakt.

WHILST - Everything there was was there Ep - Optimo Music

Compass Point, Muscle Shoals, Sun Studios, Studio One, Cargo Studios, Spaceward Studios : all seminal recording studios. Here in Glasgow we are very fortunate to have Green Door Studio which is a free thinking hub for wild, original creativity and great sounding analogue recordings. Several Optimo Music releases including Golden Teacher were born out of recording sessions there and indeed, this will be the 6th release on Optimo Music to be recorded at Green Door. They deserve credit as my secret A&R division occasionally getting in touch and saying "we think you might like this" which inevitably leads to me scraping my brain off the floor and deciding I have to release it as a record asap. This 5 track EP by Whilst was the latest transmission from Green Door that my ears fell in love with. How to describe it? I have no idea except to say that it is wildly inventive and incredibly free music made by several individuals who are unnervingly young to be making these sounds. They describe themselves as follows -

"Formed originally as a jam-based project in the ever-fertile analogue studio ‘Green Door’, Whilst jump seamlessly between free jazz, primitive electronics, dubby post-punk, North African and motorik stlyings, underpinning their sound with a strong punk ethos".

OM 21 - Whilst - Everything There Was Was There EP


Tracklist:


A1) Goya's Skull
A2 ) Untitled From North Africa

B1) Umgebung
B2) Wee Moth
B3) Postcard From A Robot

MICHELE MININNI - Tupolev Love Ep - Optimo Trax

Michele Mininni is from Southern Italy where he says people are not interested in his type of music so he was forced to reach out to Glasgow where it turns out some people most defintely are. Citing his influences as kraut, post rock, new wave and electronic amongst others, this is his debut release and most accomplished it is too. Lowering the tempo somewhat compared with previous Optimo Trax releases, Tupolev Love is a sub 100bpm cosmic trancer while Telekomdisko raises the tempo and heads off into sun drenched space territory. The EP is completed by Michele's fellow countrymen, Boot & Tax's great acid inflected remix of Tupolev Love.

Optimo Trax OT 007 is released on 12" and digital April 2014. Distribution by Kompakt and Rub A Dub.



OT 007 - Michele Mininni - Tupolev Love EP


Tracklist:




A1) Tupolev Love


AA1) Telekomdisko

AA2) Tupolev Love (Boot & Tax Remix)

GOLDEN TEACHER - Party People / Love Ep - Optimo Music

After the success of their first EP “Bells from the Deep End” and their second “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”, we are very happy to present the third Golden Teacher EP with another sleeve designed and made by their fair hands. This is is an edition of 500 as that is all that time allows to be made. We are not advocates of limited edition releases but sometimes necessity dictates. Further copies will be available in the Optimo Music house bag.
Their latest release is a party record…play it loud, preferably with some lasers and strobes, and LET LOOSE.
It s a double A-side release. Party People is Go-Go a go go while the more electronic leaning Love has been cut at 45 so it can be cunningly played at either speed for extra added value love. The 12" also features an added bonus not jazz funk gem, Silver Chalice.
Wild party music from Glasgow from our hearts to yours. Available on 12" and digital, April 2014. Distribution by Kompakt.

OM 23 - Golden Teacher - Party People/Love EP


Tracklist:

A1) Love
AA1) Party People
AA2) Silver Chalice

THE TWINS - You' ve Got A Twin In The Attic (You Lunatic) Ep - Optimo Music

It has been all quiet on the Optimo Music front recently while energy has been devoted to the launch of Optimo Trax but do not fear, there are a plethora of scintillating releases in the pipeline for 2014.
First up is a stormtrooper of an EP from The Twins. We first met The Twins when they were hanging out in Glasgow before they were twins and were simply known as Julienne Dessagne. By the time our paths had crossed in various European capital cities they had fully developed their Twin like tendencies. A mutual appreciation was born and out of that came the suggestion that The Twins might make a record for Optimo Music. The resulting three tracks far exceeded our wildest expectations and we are incredibly proud to be presenting this Twins magnum opus to the world. Haunting, forceful, transcendent music with spine tingling vocals this EP has perhaps a tad more dancefloor capability than many Optimo Music releases but is also a record equally capable of giving your ears a lot of loving at home.

The EP has been mixed to perfection by The Twins ally, Superpitcher who will be releasing their debut album on his and Rebolledo's Hippie Dance label later this year.

Expect Twins live shows soon.


Tracklist:

A1) You've Got A Twin In The Attic (You Lunatic)

AA1) Water Coaster
AA2) Love Monarchy

OPTIMO - The Underground Sound Of Glasgow - Glasgow Underground

Glasgow Underground lancia una nuova serie di compilation con l'uscita di "The Underground Sound Of Glasgow" mixata da JD Twitch di Optimo, una vera e propria serie che vedrà ogni Dj attingere e raccogliere musica dalla propria città di provenienza.
Keith Mclvor aka JD Twitch è un nome già molto noto e sinonimo di qualità ed eclettismo nel panorama internazionale di musica elettronica moderna e il suo progetto Optimo, ideato e vissuto al fianco di Jonnie Wilkes aka Espacio, non è diverso.