20 Years of The Sub Club by Sub Culture and Optimo Review

The Sub Club is Glasgow and Scotland’s Mecca to the underground. Evolving from ancient times, 1987 is ancient in terms of house, the Sub Club has played spectacle and weathered the ever changing landscape of dance music to still stay one of the best clubs of Scotland and the UK. I myself have never been in the 20 years of my 23 that it has existed but I have heard nothing but good words from Scottish friends and acquaintances. If I get over the grim Trainspotting images of crazed wielding Robbie Carlyles and smack injecting Ewan McGregors, then the Sub Club will be the first place I visit in the land of the Scots.

This CD is spread over 2 discs mixed by the long standing residents Sub Culture and Optimo. CD 1 by Sub Culture chronicles the different sounds of house and techno that have passed through the Sub Culture nights. Timeless tracks have been selected to produce a great mix, side stepping genres and the need to be upfront allowing the quality of great music to shine through. It meanders back in time hitting great tracks such as Carl Craig’s epic Mind of a Machine, Derrick May and Stacey Pullen’s mix of Wiggin, Soul Center II’s percussive Psycho Set, Code 6’s piano roller Quad 2, Jimmy Bo Horne’s Spank and Galaxy 2 Galaxy’s Jupiter Jazz.

I’ve listened to a few “history of house and techno” compilations and more often than not they tend to sound corny due to a dated sound. I know that’s contradictory with them being history compilations which generally tend to include old tracks, but some times old tracks are supposed to stay in the past. Its why Sasha and Digweed re-released The Mix Collection and took out all the cheesey M People piano house giving the CD a fresher sound. This CD follows in the similar vein. Sub Culture achieved what they set out to do, which is mix timeless tracks from dance music’s history. And the reasons I like it is because I can still appreciate the tracks with out the pre-requisite of 90s nostalgia which is where the other CDs go wrong for me.

CD 2 showcases the sounds of Optimo and their Sunday shindigs which have notched up over 10 years of service. The second CD goes through what you’d expect from Optimo, down tempo driving beats stopping off everywhere from disco, house and funk right through to techno, punk and acid. It truly is a unique sound that’s edgy, hip and cool, something that very few can pull off.

Stand out tracks on this CD have to be the short blast of Jeff Mills The Bells wound down to set the tempo, Luke Vibert’s acid tweak monster Asheed, Beat Conductor’s Moroccan influenced Marrakech, Ruth’s disco punk Polaroid/Roman/Photo, Lindstrom and Prins Thomas’ epic piano tinged Might Girl, Linkwood Family’s funk oozing Piece of Mind and Junior Byron’s Dance to the Music. It’s the variety and diversity which makes this CD so enjoyable to listen to and probably the more favoured of the two discs for me.

As a whole this CD combo makes it a keeper. Built on quality its been educational with both CDs showing me sounds from back in time within genres I reside in as well as sounds from genres across the board. Its educational without being cheesey, obvious or boring. The folks down at the national curriculum should take a leaf out the Sub Club’s book. 9/10

Buy 20 Years of the Sub Club


Release Date: 26th May
Disc 1 - Sub Culture
1 Carl Craig - Mind of A Machine
2 The Martian - Sex In Zero Gravity
3 Neal Howard - The Gathering
4 Mayday - Wiggin (Stacey Pullen Remix)
5 Quadrant - Q.1.1.
6 Orlando Voorn - The Light
7 Soul Center II - Psycho Set
8 Steve Poindexter - Born 2 Freak
9 Code 6 - Quad 2
10 Round 2 - New Day
11 Induceve - Time To Begin (Henrik Schwarz Dub)
12 Jimmy Bo Horne - Spank
13 Arnold Jarvis - Take Some Time Out
14 Lee Lewis - Atmosphere
15 Galaxy 2 Galaxy - Jupiter Jazz
16 Code 6 - Last Voyage

Disc 2 - Optimo
1 Jeff Mills - The Bells (Section)
2 Leather Nun - FFA
3 Nocturnal Emissions - No Separation
4 The Orb - Ripples
5 Les Georges Leningrad - Missing Gary
6 OP: L Bastards - Spraybeat (Eagle Mix)
7 Alec Empire - Robot L.o.v.e.
8 Luke Vibert - Asheed
9 Beat Conductor - Marrakech
10 Amnesia - Ibiza
11 Ruth - Polaroid / Roman / Photo
12 Front 242 - Take One
13 Baby Oliver - Shot Caller
14 Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - Mighty Girl (feat. Tortuga - Grand Drum)
15 Imps - Almost Live But Definitely Plugged
16 Jay Shepheard - Last Days (of Cou Cou) (feat. Tortuga - Grand Drum)
17 Linkwood Family - Piece of Mind
18 Mugwump - Boutade
19 Junior Byron - Dance To The Music
20 C Cat Trance - Shake The Mind