Keith McIvor, higher referred to as JD Twitch, of the influential Scottish digital duo Optimo, died on Friday, September 19. The information was shared on the group’s Instagram web page with a observe written by McIvor’s bandmate, Jonnie “JG” Wilkes. Optimo didn’t specify McIvor’s reason behind loss of life, however the musician had disclosed, in July, that he was recognized with an untreatable mind tumor. He was 57 years outdated.
McIvor grew up in Balerno, a village close to Edinburgh, Scotland, the place he first rose to prominence within the early Nineties as a founding resident DJ at Pure, a celebration that ran on the Venue. In 1997, he linked up with Wilkes to launch Optimo (Espacio), a famend weekly occasion at Glasgow’s Sub Membership that ran till 2010, bringing in reside acts like Grace Jones, Peaches, LCD Soundsystem, Reduce Copy, and plenty of others by way of its doorways alongside the way in which.
McIvor and Wilkes additionally used the Optimo moniker for their very own DJ units, which had been usually marked by seamless, omnivorous music style spanning acid home, post-punk, techno, funk, hardcore, and dancehall. Their work culminated in a number of head-spinning mixes, most notably 2004’s acclaimed double-disc How to Kill the DJ [Part II].
In 2009, McIvor and Wilkes shaped Optimo Music, a file label on which they fostered each Glaswegian artists like Golden Teacher, in addition to forward-thinking dance acts like Factory Floor. After bringing Optimo (Espacio) to an in depth, the duo continued to tour and DJ collectively internationally, together with at extra residencies in Glasgow and London. Optimo additionally hosted a month-to-month NTS Radio show and lately launched Watching Trees, a music pageant within the North Wiltshire countryside.
“In a 28 yr partnership he modified my life immeasurably and collectively we took our work in instructions and to locations few persons are fortunate sufficient to discover,“ Wilkes wrote, partially, in his observe asserting McIvor’s loss of life. “I’m endlessly grateful for all the things he bestowed on me, each as a accomplice in music and as a pal. Keith’s depth and keenness for all times, for music, for creativity and for constructive change merely by no means let up. He was formidable.”
