Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Gathering >

BARBELITH, meet OPTIMO, OPTIMO, BARBELITH

autopilot disengaged

06:54 / 19.08.05

OPTIMO!
IT CAME FROM THE SEA DEEJAYS
TUESDAYS CHILD (LIVE) PETE HAYWOOD + ROB RHYTHM MASTER

THE OCEAN ROOMS
SAT 20 AUG
10-LATE * £10/8/5 BEFORE 11

“For the uninitiated, Optimo is quite probably the hippest club in the UK right now – influencing playlists everywhere from their homebase in the Sub Club, Glasgow. This year they’ve released two of the best DJ mix CDs in living memory, ‘How to kill the DJ pt.II’ and ‘Psyche Out’, played festivals across Europe, guested at clubs as diverse as Fabric, Our Disco, The Cock and Manumission – and now bring their hyper-eclectic psychedelic aesthetic to Brighton for the very first time. With the ICFTHS Away Team riding a modest shotgun alongside (well, before, actually) you don’t have to be a meteorologist to see this is shaping up to be the hottest night of the summer…”

still don’t believe us? check out the Optimo website – www.optimo.co.uk and fall in sonic love. also: remember, that just like ICFTHS, *every* aspect of the night from posters, promotion, website, playlist, deejaying and even venue preparation is organised by just the two originators themselves, DIY disco-style.

we’re as excited as anyone by witnessing what these guys do to the Ocean Rooms, and shall be joining you, you and you in the adoring throng once we’ve packed our laptops away. feel free to say hello. we mostly like most people. note: coherence is not guaranteed.

and once again: £5 before 11.
you owe it to yrself.

07:20 / 19.08.05

Optimo are fantastic and you should all go see them if you are anywhaer near Brighton that night. They do one of the best nights in Glasgow and have done for years.

Goodness Gracious Meme

12:22 / 19.08.05

oooh, this loooks verrry tempting.

Quants, you reckon this could be a goer, post-picnic?

13:47 / 19.08.05

Well, *I'm* going, hosting duties be damned. Picnic (maybe indoor) until about 8/9 then to this I think. We won't miss the ICFTS set will we?
It's possible a gang of already merry picnickers could descend en masse, otherwise just me and mine, but we will reprazent fo' sure.

A beautiful tunnel of ghosts

15:46 / 19.08.05

If any 'Lithers are interested in an Optimo set CD, PM me and I'll send one out. Unless of course the CDs are for sale elsewhere - the CD I have is a copy - in which case never mind. Move along - nothing to see here *cough*.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

16:15 / 19.08.05

Blimes! I'm in Brighton on a 'Sea' night! This could be ver' exciting, unless I'm my usual self and knackered by 10:00 pm...

18:13 / 19.08.05

I have strong coffee, fret ye not.

autopilot disengaged

22:59 / 19.08.05

pace yrself.

ICFTHS: 10:00-12:30
OPTIMO: 12:31-02:00 (03:00 if it's MASSIVE).

tomorrow's gonna be loads of fun, for sure.
just be prepared for the long haul.

18:47 / 23.08.05

so how was it?
as a weegie optimist i wonder if the magic translates and how.

spill!

Goodness Gracious Meme

10:06 / 24.08.05

Fucking glorious. Does that sound typical?

Danced for hours, me, almost entirely straight(bloody marys from afternoon trickling through, thass about it). Fantastic mixing, the odd swerve into stuff that was slightly more Ibeefa than my normal thing, but aceness of dj'ing/selection of tracks/atmosphere carried practically anything.

Goodness Gracious Meme

10:07 / 24.08.05

If I was a weegie, I'd be going again. And again...

13:26 / 24.08.05

Does that sound typical?

pretty much.
the only thing is that if you do go again and again and again... it starts to get boring. it shouldnt, and it prolly says more about folks(like me) inability to keep their minds fresh and open to the awesomeness, but yeah.
i went for about a year solidly about four or five years ago, and then i went abroad.
when i came back i went again, but now i only go occasionally.

the drugs thing too...
more optimo = more pills.
this is not a good thing.

i may go again soon.
it has been too long.

i'm glad you liked it, though.
their wandering across genres thing pisses some folks off, i even like it when i dont like it, if you know what i mean.
but dude, it was SO much better back in the day.
obviously.

autopilot disengaged

14:56 / 24.08.05

yeah, what she said.

they were also unspeakably lovely and rilly rilly conscientious... after tying the (admittedly sliiiightly under-attended) dance floor in knots for several hours they were apologetic it hadn't been even *more* insane. am emailing twitch tonight to thank him for everything.

17:40 / 24.08.05

I guess it was pretty refreshing, the way the music hopped across boundaries. One minute you were pogo-ing to the Ramones, the next it went all reggae (with various twistiness and sprinklings of electronic effects doing strange things to these songs at the same time). Yeah, really good that, thinking about it now - i can only report that I was really really stoned (possibly the wrong drug for dancing?) and found it a bit jarring. Also, the club was a bit too angular, minimalist and un-cosy for me - freakishly, almost identical to the Sub Club in Glasgow, which I used to go to a lot, and a couple of times I had to grope for a sense of where I was...

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:13 / 26.08.05

God, that must have been a bit spooky.

Yeah, agreed on the Ocean rooms, it wasn't great to begin with and the 'make-over' makes it utterly rubbish.

Taking out the seats/mirrors + pine-effect dj-booth=bad UK motorway version of mediterranean bistro, not great dancing venue.

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:18 / 26.08.05

the only thing is that if you do go again and again and again... it starts to get boring. it shouldnt, and it prolly says more about folks(like me) inability to keep their minds fresh and open to the awesomeness, but yeah.

Yeah, can see that. Is it a weekly/monthly?

And heh, the way you describe the above, is 'oddly enough', one of the reasons I hardly ever take pills. I like to keep the 'speicialness' thing and can totally see how it'd apply (in combination?) to both.

But trust me, that level of eclectism and dj'ing and pure ROCKING skill is rarely seen round these parts.

I find myself only going to a couple of nights down here, and those, tragically enough, run by people I know, so the freshness and variety was *glorious*

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:22 / 26.08.05

, i even like it when i dont like it, if you know what i mean.

Yeah, I totally get that.

14:57 / 26.08.05

it's a weekly.
it has been the best sunday night in glasgow for about seven or eight years.

twitch is also behind Pure, a night through in edinburgh. that was kinda the benchmark for a good dance night in a lot of people's eyes back in the late nineties.
i never went in its heyday, but apparently he has always been fucking brilliant.

oh, and twitch also did a comic with grant morrison.
three panels, all about clubland, and i gave him shit for it on this board.

i do ind it a bit mad that brighton lacks something like it, hey. with acts like optimo, the lglimmers, 2manydjs, etc i always figured that the eclecticism vibe was global or at least all over the UK.
that said, i do remember the dance nights i went to down there being kinda lacklustre... the thing that had me dancing most to was a king prawn gig.

maybe TnW should start a franchise?

14:59 / 26.08.05

oh, and they have a website.
optimo: they love your ears.

Goodness Gracious Meme

17:03 / 26.08.05

Went to Pure, years ago, once or twice, and it did rool.

Also, a friend informs me that Twitch started out running the best Goth night in Edinborough, an 80s thing called The Backroom!