Optimo, or Optimo (Espacio) as they also go by, was founded in 1997 and ran until 2010 as a weekly Sunday-night club playing techno, electronic and rock at the Sub Club in Glasgow. It’s also the collective name for the night’s resident DJ duo JD Twitch and JG Wilkes, who continue to tour and release new music.
This year marks the duo’s 20th anniversary. As part of the celebrations, Optimo will play at Dada Beijing on September 8 and Dada Shanghai on September 9. Support comes Tanner and Juhstynn.
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Here, the duo in their own words.
JG Wilkes:
When the ceiling of the dance floor is getting pounded by fists to the extent that holes are appearing – then it’s going off.
Sometimes safety policies [during our residency at Sub Club] would get in the way of what we thought was a great idea, and we’d have to abort or radically rethink something, but generally we made the Sub Club our own.
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JD Twitch
Having been around during the older scene I think it’s easy to over romanticize how great it might have been when it wasn’t necessarily so. There are things I preferred about then and there are things I prefer about now, but overall I’d take now over then.
It might have been too much if we also made music and ran labels together. Perhaps we would have driven each other crazy by now, but generally I think we have found the perfect way of working together that works for us, and after 20 years feel we actually get on now better than ever.
There is a certain something that connects our music choices even if that isn’t immediately apparent when listening.
Beijing: Fri Sep 8, 10pm; tickets TBD; Dada Beijing, see event listing.
Shanghai: Sat Sep 9, 10pm; tickets TBD; Dada Shanghai, see event listing.
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