Various Artists

Glasgow DJ duo Optimo are like a crystal ball of the leftfield dancefloor. Back in the late ’90s, when most indie clubs were 30 pissed-up students stumbling around to a worn copy of ‘I Am The Resurrection’, Twitch and Wilkes were dropping gristly punk-funk numbers like The Contortions or mixing whooshing German prog records into bang-bang techno with a total disregard for anything but hedonistic good times. Their new mix, ‘Walkabout’, is a new step beyond. Veering between immersive techno (Pan Sonic’s bruising ‘Hapatus’), ambient metal (Boris’ ‘My Machine’), and switchblade synth-punk (Suicide’s ‘Radiation’), it’s a deep trip that veers almost imperceptibly between poles of adrenaline and bliss. But it could
never work on a dancefloor – could it?

Louis Pattison

8 out of 10