Optimum Space To Twitch

Celebrating Keith McIvor aka JD Twitch aka one half of the mighty Optimo, following news of his passing on Friday 19th September 2025 at the age of 57.

Last month, it was revealed that Keith had an untreatable brain tumour and funds were raised to support round-the-clock care. And now he is gone. My thoughts and best wishes go to Keith's family, friends and loved ones.

Keith was a legend in music for two reasons: his solo work as DJ and producer JD Twitch; then there was Optimo, or Optimo (Espacio).

The latter had two separate and distinct identities. Optimo (Espacio) was a club night that ran in The Sub Club in Glasgow from 1997 to 2010, a partnership between long-time pals Keith and Jonnie Wilkes. 

Optimo, or Optimo (Espacio) was also a remix and production duo of Keith with Dave Clark, and which provides a heavy contribution to today's selection. The pair have released countless remixes over the years and it's a testament to the quality of their work that this is just as much about what I had to leave out than what I included.

And Keith's remixes as JD Twitch kept the bar very high, as today's picks will attest.

But that wasn't my first experience of Keith's music, though I found this out much, much later. 

In my first forays into downloading MP3s from music sites in 2000 and 2001, I was introduced to Mount Florida via the Matador Records label. I knew next to nothing about, but were subsequently revealed to be a partnership between Keith McIvor and Mike Lancaster. Just five releases between 1997 and 2001 - a 12" of untitled dubs, three EPs and an album, Arrived Phoenix - all excellent.

Today's selection is a tribute to Keith's formidable skills at the controls, redefining trance music for the 21st Century and creating remixes that frequently surpassed the original source song.

I could have gone on and on, but I've restricted my selection to 13 songs and just under 90 minutes. It's not enough, though it manages to span Keith's end of the century excursions with Mount Florida right up to this year's rerub of Primal Scream.

If you're a fan of Keith's music, I hope this serves him well. If you're less familiar with his work, then I hope it inspires you to go looking for more, it's every bit as good as what you'll find here.

Rest well, Keith, you have left so much to savour and remember you by.

1) Life Magazine (An Optimo (Espacio) Mix): Cold Cave (2010)

2) No Social (Optimo Espacio Remix): The Shortwave Set (2008)

3) In Sintesi (JD Twitch Optimo Mix): Róisín Murphy (2014)

4) Buzz In (Optimo Remix): Boris (2009)

5) 18 Hours (Of Love) (An Optimo (Espacio) Remix): K-X-P (2018)

6) Circus Of Life (A JD Twitch Remix): Primal Scream (2025)

7) Autonomia (A JD Twitch Optimo Total Destruction): Mark Stewart vs Primal Scream (2012)

8) G-Twang! (Single Version): Mount Florida (1999)

9) Greater Reward (Piano Power Edit By JD Twitch): Severed Heads (2015)

10) Infected (A JD Twitch Optimo Mix) (Cover Of The The): David Shaw And The Beat (2012)

11) White Rooms And People (A JD Twitch Mix): Working Men's Club (2020)

12) Lost In Satie (Single Version): Mount Florida (1999)

13) Bedjem Mebok (JD Twitch Remix): 10LEC6 (2017)

1999: Stealth EP: 12

1999: Strut EP: 8

2008: No Social EP: 2

2009: Buzz In: Remix Project EP: 4

2010: Life Magazine EP: 1

2012: Autonomia EP: 7

2012: Infected EP: 10

2014: Mi Senti Remixed EP: 3

2015: Big Saints Reward (88-90 Dubs) EP: 9

2017: Bedjem Mebok EP: 13

2018: 18 Hours (Of Love) / Tears (Extended Interlude) EP: 5

2025: Come Ahead: The Remixes Volume One: Vocals: 6

2025: JD Twitch: Heavenly Remixes EP: 11

Optimum Space To Twitch (1:28:51) (GD) (M)

Everybody's Got To Learn Nine Times

Mute has released the third song from Mark Stewart's posthumous album, The Fateful Symmetry, out on 11th July. 

Not only is it a singular cover of The Korgis' signature song, Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime, but in the hands of Elijah Minnelli and Adrian Sherwood, it's been transformed into "a masterstroke of soundsystem militancy". 

And rest assured, despite the Bébe Durmiendo Cumbia Bootleg label, this is the version that you'll find on the album.

If you haven't already pre-ordered The Fateful Symmetry, you can do it now.

I have quite a few cover versions of the song already, including Beck (from 2004's Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind OST), Glasvegas (the B-side of 2007 single Geraldine) and The Dream Academy (the penultimate song of 1987's 2nd album Remembrance Days). 

However, I didn't realise quite how many more versions there are out there, so here's the three above, plus another four from Yazz, Army Of Lovers, Erasure and, sticking two fingers to her siblings*, Sharon Corr.

And, to end, it has to be the version that started it all in 1980, The Korgis and a video that looks like a complete health and safety nightmare.

All beautiful, in their own way.

1) Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime (Bébe Durmiendo Cumbia Bootleg): Mark Stewart (2025)

2) Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime: Army Of Lovers (2001)

3) Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime (Live @ Primavera Sound, São Paulo, Brazil): Beck (2023)

4) Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime: The Dream Academy (1987)

5) Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime (Live @ The EIS Christmas Concert, Birmingham): Erasure (2002)

6) Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime: Glasvegas (2008)

7) Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime: Sharon Corr (2010)

8) Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime: Yazz (1994)

9) Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime: The Korgis (1980)

* absolutely not true.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Veneer Of Democracy Has Been Stripped Away

Remembering Mark Stewart, 10th August 1960 to 21st April 2023.

I posted a hastily compiled Dubhed selection as a tribute the morning after news broke of Mark's passing. In closing, I promised that  

"There will be a follow up post, 

where I try to articulate just why Mark Stewart 

is such an important figure [...]

I just can't find the words right now."

This is that follow-up post, marking two years since Mark died. I'm still not sure I have the words, but Mark's stepped up and done it for me by releasing a brilliant new single, Memory Of You.

Memory Of You is the opening track of The Fateful Symmetry, out in July and completed before Mark's untimely passing. No compromise, even in death.

I discovered Mark's music in the late 1980s via my interest in Adrian Sherwood and ON-U Sound and the Mute label, the channels leading me to his solo albums with Maffia aka Doug Wimbish, Keith LeBlanc and Skip McDonald. 

At this point, I had no idea of Mark's links to my birthplace Bristol, and was largely ignorant of The Pop Group, their significance and legacy. The past thirty-odd years have been a voyage of discovery and learning, revealing the complexity and contradictions through a career of challenge and non-conformity.

I've had a little more time to compile today's selection, compared to the ad-hoc tribute in 2023. Even so, this remains a surface-scratching exercise; there are so many layers, and Mark's work goes way beyond that with The Pop Group, Maffia and solo. The good news is that much of it is available in digital and physical formats via Mute, Bandcamp or your friendly local record shop.

Mark's music remains as crucial now as it ever has done.

1) Deep Time Dub (Mark Stewart Mix): Nohumaneye vs Mark Stewart (2022)

2) Hysteria (Album Version By Mark Stewart & Adrian Sherwood): Mark Stewart + Maffia (1990)

3) Death Trip To Tulsa ('Mark Stewart’s Exopolitix Demix'): Mark Lanegan Band (2015)

4) Where There's A Will There's A Way (Single Version By The Pop Group & Dave Anderson): The Pop Group (1980)

5) Shame And Pain (Album Version By Mark Stewart & Jim Sclavunos): Mark Stewart & Jeffrey Lee Pierce ft. Thurston Moore (2014)

6) Gustav Says (Album Version By Mark Stewart & Youth): Mark Stewart ft. Keith Levene & Achim Treu (2012)

7) Toxic Waste (Mark Stewart & Uncle Fester On Acid Remix By Mark Stewart & Patrick Dokter): Lampredonto (2022)

8) Babycino (Album Version By Mark Stewart & Youth): Mark Stewart (2012)

9) Forces Of Oppression (Album Version By The Pop Group & Dave Anderson): The Pop Group (1980)

10) 'Ndrangheta Allotmen (Mark Stewart's Spectrum Remix): Meatraffle (2018)

11) Gang War (Album Version By Mark Stewart & Youth): Mark Stewart ft. Lee 'Scratch' Perry & Keith Levene (2012)

12) A4 ####### (Mallarmé Read By Mark): Nun Gun ft. Mark Stewart (2021)

13) (Amnesty Report II) (Album Version By Dennis Bovell): The Pop Group (1979)

14) Method To The Madness (Album Version By Mark Stewart & Youth): Mark Stewart ft. Nik Void (2012)

15) Rob A Bank (Album Version By The Pop Group & Dave Anderson): The Pop Group (1980)

16) The Last Enemy (Mark Stewart Black Mix): Consolidated (2021)

17) Simulacra (Album Version By Mark Stewart & Adrian Sherwood): Mark Stewart (1995)

18) Struggle (Adrian Sherwood / Mark Stewart Mutant Disco Vocal Mix): Radio 4 (2003)

19) Savage Sea (Album Version By The Pop Group & Dennis Bovell): The Pop Group (1979)

1979: Y: 19

1980: For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?: 9, 15

1980: In The Beginning There Was Rhythm / Where There's A Will.. EP (split 7" w/ The Slits): 4

1980: We Are Time: 13

1990: Metatron: 2

1995: Control Data: 17

2003: Eyes Wide Open / Struggle EP: 18

2012: The Politics Of Envy: 6, 11, 14

2012: Exorcism Of Envy: 8

2014: Axels & Sockets: The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project: 5

2015: A Thousand Miles Of Midnight: Phantom Radio Remixes: 3

2018: Revenge Of An 'Ndrangheta Cell, On An Allotment, In Norbury, South London EP: 10

2021: Stealth Empire In Dub: 12

2021: We're Already There (Remixes): 16

2022: King Of The Zombies EP: 1

2022: !Wasted!: 7

The Veneer Of Democracy Has Been Stripped Away (1:14:41) (KF) (Mega)

You can find Out Here On The Perimeter, Nobody Can Hear You Scream, my previous Mark Stewart tribute selection, here

Out Here On The Perimeter, Nobody Can Hear You Scream

Celebrating Mark Stewart, 10th August 1960 to 21st April 2023.

I was preparing to put my head down for the night when the news of Mark Stewart's passing popped up on my phone. To say that I'm shocked, saddened and completely gutted is an understatement.

There will be a follow up post, where I try to articulate just why Mark Stewart is such an important figure in my musical education, to Bristol the place of my birth and to the world of music, politics and life in general. I just can't find the words right now.

In the meantime, here are 15 reasons why from the man himself, with The Pop Group, Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound, Dennis Bovell, Holger Hiller, Primal Scream, Jah Wobble, Keith Levene, Andrew Weatherall, Gary Clail, Daddy G... the list goes on.

Rest in power, Mark, rest in protest.

 

1) She Is Beyond Good And Evil (Single Version): The Pop Group (1979)

2) Baby Bourgeois: Mark Stewart ft. Nicole Bottazzi (2012)

3) Citizen Zombie: The Pop Group (2015)

4) Psychoville (Digitalism Remix): Mark Stewart & Martin Peter (2005)

5) Autonomia (Electro Edit): Mark Stewart ft. Primal Scream (2012)

6) Digital Justice (Dub Remix): Mark Stewart (1996)

7) Home Sweet Home: Adrian Sherwood ft. Mark Stewart (2006)

8) Crazy Dreams And High Ideals: New Age Steppers (1981)

9) Fatal Attraction (Extended Version): Mark Stewart (1990)

10) A Very British Coup (Single Version): Jah Wobble ft. Keith Levene, Richard Dudanski, Mark Stewart, Andrew Weatherall & Youth (2020)

11) All Of My Senses (K.K. Null Mix): Mark Stewart vs Mike Watt vs K.K. Null (2022)

12) Forever Now (Mark Stewart Remixxx): Textbeak ft. Mark Stewart & Janine Rainforth (2021)

13) Television (On-U Sound Dance Mix By Adrian Sherwood, Gary Clail & Mark Stewart): The Beatnigs (1988)

14) Apocalyspe Dub: Mark Stewart ft. Daddy G (2012)

15) We Are All Prostitutes (Crookers Remix): Adam Sky vs. Mark Stewart (2007)

1979: She Is Beyond Good And Evil EP: 1

1981: The New Age Steppers: 8

1988: Television EP: 13

1990: Fatal Attraction EP (promo 12"): 9

1996: Volume Sixteen: 6

2005: Psychoville EP: 4

2006: Becoming A Cliché: 7

2007: We Are All Prostitutes EP: 15

2012: Exorcism Of Envy: 14

2012: The Politics Of Envy: 2

2012: The Politics Of Envy / Experiments EP (ltd 2x CD): 5

2015: Citizen Zombie: 3

2020: A Very British Coup EP: 10

2021: Sick For Songs A Season Eats Remixes: 12

2022: VS: 11

Out Here On The Perimeter, Nobody Can Hear You Scream (1:16:22) (KF) (Mega)