Optimo (Espacio) News

Now playing Glasgow Che Supermax (Wilkes)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:49:11 GMT

Saturday March 27th 2010

Now playing Glasgow GI Party

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:48:49 GMT

Friday April 16th 2010

March 5th and 12th

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:33:29 GMT

This Sunday Twitch and Wilkes are touring Australia so have left the club in the more than capable hands of two of Glasgow's finest purveyors of music for dancing - Pro Vinylist Karim and David Barbarossa. Joining them will be one of the best new bands out of Glasgow, American Men. Here's what they have to say about themselves. LuckyMe's first band signing, American Men, a three-piece synthetic rock band formed of Claude Speed, Alilloyd, Scottt Chevrolet - members of Dananananakroyd and other obscure and fantastic Glasgow Rock bands. Here is a sound like no others - uplifting, driving synth music accompanied by tightly-syncopated live drums. Their debut release, Cool World features 5 shimmering tracks already being hyped across a span of rock and electronic genres, from Huw Stevens BBC Radio One to Hudson Mohawke and the legendary Mark Pritchard (Warp). These guys represent a new tone for the often dry scene of math & post-rock. Cool World is prog' for a generation raised on Boards of Canada and short attention spans - evoking childhood visions of the future; laser etched nazca lines; a city of pyramids and modernist skyscrapers. This is fun, clever, cinematic music playing with time signatures without losing its bright optimism and danceability. www.myspace.com/weareamericanmen Next week (12th), Twitch is still away touring some far flung part of the Antipodes but Wilkes is back and will be joined by the one and only Jackmaster for the night.

Now playing London Fabric

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:08:38 GMT

Saturday April 10th 2010

Now playing Aberdeen Origin

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:08:16 GMT

Friday April 2nd 2010

Now playing Belfast Stiff Kitten (Twitch)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:07:29 GMT

Saturday March 27th 2010

Now playing Manchester Naive Melody

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:06:54 GMT

Friday March 26th 2010

Coming Soon

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:04:39 GMT

KXP, Matias Aguayo, How Basildon Ended the Cold War, Nurse With Wound and more.

IT'S THE OPTIMO TURBO RAVE. BIGGER. BOLDER. ROUGHER. TOUGHER

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:16:24 GMT

This Sunday (28th), it's the Optimo Turbo Rave. What? Why? The word "rave" has been much abused over the years. It has become almost a pejorative term and even leads to a bit of sniggering at the back. Almost everyone who has asked us about the Optimo Turbo Rave since it was first mentioned has jokingly asked if we'll be playing records by ____ (insert any dreadful early 90s dance act here). No, we won't. In our minds that's not what a rave was all about. It wasn't all hoovers at dawn, helium vocals, cheesy piano breakdowns and hands in the air all night. A rave was a place where a ridiculously loud sound system was combined with sensory overload lighting to enhance the experience of dancing to all strains of electronic dance music with a vague feeling of "one-ness" amongst the participants. This is what we will put on on Sunday. The Sub Club already has the best sound system in Scotland but we're going to double that. This is not some dumb exercise in trying to deafen everybody. It is NOT going to be painfully loud, but rather the sound will be omnipresent. There will be no escape from the music, so if you like to hang out at the bar and chat all night, maybe skip this Sunday? We don't want to spoil the surprise regarding the lighting and a few other touches we plan to implement, but expect to be�.dazzled! We are always very amenable to taking requests at Optimo. We ask on this night that you don't ask us for any and definitely don't ask us to play _____ (insert your favourite cheesy dance anthem here). This is not an exercise in nostalgia. Sure, it would be futile for us to resist the lure of the shelves of late 80s and early 90s dance music we have, but we will also be playing records from the 21st century too. If this is all starting to sound a bit serious, well, we take our stoopid concepts VERY seriously, but rest assured this WILL be ridiculously good fun and we 99.9999% guarantee you will leave with a smile (or a gurn) on your face.

FEBRUARY NEWS UPDATE

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:04:46 GMT

This Sunday, Valentine's night collides with Optimo. We thought about trying to cash in on this but we've never been very good at cashing in, and besides, the sight of lots of lovestruck couples canoodling in night clubs is enough to make us want to boke. So, instead we thought we'd go after the patently huge Match.com market and try to "fix you up at Optimo", but that seemed a touch crass. Instead, why not come along and dump your significant other at Optimo? It'll be dark so that should hide any tears and it'll be loud so that should silence any recriminations. There's also a very handy bar right next to the dancefloor, so you can get right on with drowning your sorrows and / or the celebrations. For all those without any thoughts of romance, we also have Danton Eeeprom from Paris playing live. He makes electronic dance music that sounds like one has taken a lot of that plant food that appears to be all the rage these days, but without the need to actually ingest any of it and thus avoids the need to suffer any of the potential side effects. Score. www.myspace.com/dantonrocks FYI, we sucked a bit of corporate cock this week. We usually avoid doing this but they made us an offer that was just a fraction of an iota beyond the point where it was more effort to turn it down than to accept. So, if you are a bit overwhelmed by adverts for a certain kind of vodka in the club this week, (their offer wasn't good enough that I'm going to give them any free advertising here), you'll know why. ______ Next week, the 21st, we have hooked up with the Glasgow Film Festival and will be doing a party with them to celebrate the end of their "Shorts" festival. They are good people who are trying to do something good for Glasgow so we did this purely for the love. There will be films projected onto the gap site next to the club (good for passing the time when yr outside smoking). This is the programme - You Made Me Love You (Miranda Pennell) The

Now playing Perth Republic (Twitch)

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:40:16 GMT

Saturday March 13th 2010

Now playing Beijing Lantern (Twitch)

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:27:29 GMT

Saturday March 20th 2010

Now playing Shanghai Shelter (Twitch)

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:27:03 GMT

Friday March 19th 2010

New podcast Optimo Podcast 4 - Car Mix

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:23:19 GMT

Optimo Podcast 4 - Car Mix: www.optimo.co.uk/podcasts/index.php

Alistair Leigh

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:10:25 GMT

Genuine Glasgow legend Alistair Leigh passed away yesterday. I wanted to write something brief about him and what he meant to me but it ended up writing itself and becoming a bit too long to post here so I have made a page for it which you can read here should the notion take you. I'd just like to add that the term "Raver" has become slightly bastardised over the years and has almost come to have pejorative connotations. It shouldn't, as Alistair's fondness for the pursuit should testify. Alistair - Rave in peace.