Various Artists – So Low Compiled By JD Twitch (Optimo) – (The Vinyl Factory)

So Low is an occasional club night that JD Twitch has brought to Glasgow, where he plays some of the music with which he began his DJ career in 1987. It is electronic music rooted in the early 1980s, some of it industrial and falling under the spell of Cabaret Voltaire, while other tracks look forward to the oncoming rush of the house music explosion. It is a fascinating and at times uncomfortable listen, especially if you are talking about full on tracks like ‘Discipline’, Throbbing Gristle’s industrial call to arms. There are some massive drums here, not least the clattering percussion used for Hunting Lodge’s ‘Tribal Warning Shot’, but the big fills in Chris & Cosey’s ‘Passion’ serve only to enhance the crackling atmosphere. This is a really well chosen set of what we should apparently call ‘cold wave’. It definitely sends a shiver down the spine at times, but hits the dancing feet in equal measure too.

5 out of 5

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood