''Optimo'' is the third EP by American

dance-punk Dance-punk (also known as disco-punk) is a post-punk subgenre that emerged in the late 1970s, and is closely associated with the disco, post-disco and new wave movements.Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984. Simon Reynolds.Faber an ...

band

Liquid Liquid Liquid Liquid is an American no wave and dance-punk group, originally active from 1980 to 1983. They are best known for their track "Cavern," which was covered—without proper permission or attribution—by the Sugar Hill Records (rap), Sugar ...

. It was released through

99 Records 99 Records was an American independent record label, active from 1980 to 1984. The label was home to musicians in the no wave, post-punk, post-disco, and avant-garde scenes in New York City. History British designer Gina Franklyn sold British fas ...

in 1983, becoming the band's final release until the 1997 compilation album ''Liquid Liquid''. The EP includes Liquid Liquid's best-known song "Cavern", which was the subject of a dispute after being used for

Grandmaster Melle Mel Melvin Glover (born May 15, 1961), better known by his stage name Grandmaster Melle Mel or simply Melle Mel (), is an American rapper who was the lead vocalist and songwriter of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Career Glover began per ...

's "

White Lines (Don't Don't Do It) "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" is a song by American hip hop recording artist Melle Mel, released as a 12" in 1983 on Sugar Hill Records. The song, which warns against the dangers of cocaine, addiction, and drug smuggling, is one of Melle Mel ...

Background

The band began work on ''Optimo'' in late 1982, recording it in a studio on the top floor of

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall (also known as Radio City) is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York C ...

. The songs emerged from group

jam session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without ...

s. Liquid Liquid was recorded live, using portable sound barriers so the songs could be mixed. Because the studio had previously been used by

NBC Radio The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (also known as the NBC Red Network from 1927 to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it wa ...

, the band was able to use some sound effects. Ed Bahlman, who ran 99 Records, produced the EP and had the band record extended versions of songs. Bassist

Richard McGuire Richard McGuire (born 1957 in New Jersey) is an American graphic novelist, artist, and musician. His illustrations have been published in ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and ''Le Monde,'' and his work is in the collections of the Mu ...

did the cover artwork, which consists of red, yellow, and black whorls. He wanted to capture the songs' rhythms, which he described as "like standing in the middle of four tornados all swirling around". The band's name is formed by placing ''liquid'' in stacked letters next to ''liquid'' written with a vertical baseline. McGuire wanted it to be readable in two directions so "that you had to move it to read it." The band considered "Optimo" to be "the main track" and named the EP after it.

Composition

The title track "Optimo" gets its name from a brand of cigars. It includes a percussion section that uses the snare drum, bass kick drum,

rototom The rototom is a shell-less drum developed by Al Payson and Michael Colgrass that is able to change pitch by rotating its drumhead around a threaded metal ring. Unlike many types of drums, rototoms are designed to have a variable definite pi ...

, cowbell, and claves. The beat uses repeated

drum roll A drum roll (or roll for short) is a technique used by percussionists to produce a tremolo, sustained sound for the duration of a musical note, written note.Cirone, Anthony J. (1991). Simple Steps to Snare Drum', p.30-31. Alfred. . "The pur ...

s. "Optimo" also features a strummed two-note bassline and nonsensical lyrics. Its rhythm is similar to Brazilian

batucada Batucada () is a substyle of samba and refers to a percussive style, usually performed by an Musical ensemble, ensemble, known as a bateria. Batucada music is characterized by its syncopated style and fast pace with a marked rhythm. Originally fro ...

music. The EP also contains "Cavern", for which the band is most widely remembered. The song uses a "tightly coiled" bassline and displays "quintessential Lower East Side tension and paranoia".

Release and history

Bahlman considered "Cavern" the record's most important track and pressed an

acetate disc An acetate disc (also known as a ''lacquer'', ''test acetate'', '' dubplate'', or '' transcription disc'') is a type of phonograph record generally used from the 1930s to the late 1950s for recording and broadcast purposes. Despite their name, "ac ...

of it. Thinking of it as a dance song, he gauged people's reaction after giving it to his brother Bill to play at the Anvil. "Cavern" soon became popular on black radio stations in New York. Upon release, ''Optimo'' sold 30,000 copies. "Cavern" found popularity among nightclubs and hip hop musicians after DJ

John Benitez John Benitez (born November 7, 1957), also known as Jellybean, is an American musician, songwriter, DJ, remixer, and music producer. He has produced and remixed artists such as Madonna, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and the Pointer Sisters. H ...

used the song to close his sets at The Funhouse. McGuire gave a copy of the EP to

Larry Levan Lawrence Philpot (July 20, 1954 – November 8, 1992), known as Larry Levan ( ), was an American DJ best known for his decade-long residency at the New York City night club Paradise Garage, which has been described as the prototype of the moder ...

at the

Paradise Garage Paradise Garage, also known as "the Garage" or the "Gay-rage", was a New York City discotheque notable in the history of dance and pop music, as well as LGBT and nightclub cultures. The club was founded by sole proprietor Michael Brody, and ...

, where the band performed several times. "Optimo" and "Cavern" were used by

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

DJs

Frankie Knuckles Francis Warren Nicholls Jr. (January 18, 1955 – March 31, 2014), known professionally as Frankie Knuckles, was an American DJ, record producer, and remixer. He played an important role in developing and popularizing house music, a genre of mus ...

and

Ron Hardy Ron Hardy (May 8, 1958 – March 2, 1992) was an American, Chicago, Illinois-based DJ and record producer of early house music. He is well known for playing records at the Muzic Box, a Chicago house music club. Decades after his death, he is re ...

. Elements of "Cavern" were used for the Grandmaster Melle Mel song "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)".

Grandmaster Flash Joseph Robert Saddler (born January 1, 1958), known by his stage name Grandmaster Flash, is a Barbadian-American musician and DJ. He created a DJ technique called the Quick Mix Theory. This technique serviced the break-dancer and the rapper by el ...

first encountered the song through WHBI's ''Zulu Beats'' program. Sugarhill Records' house band replayed the music with traditional instruments, using the bassline and bridge from "Cavern". Liquid Liquid was initially pleased, and vocalist Salvatore Principato commented that "we felt a combination of flattery, excitement and bewilderment". "Cavern" subsequently fell out of rotation and was replaced by "White Lines". 99 Records sued Sugar Hill for the similarities between the two tracks. McGuire accused Sugar Hill of retaliating through scare tactics, including hiring someone to scare 99's customers with a machete. Sugar Hill was ordered to pay $660,000 but instead declared bankruptcy shortly after. Bahlman shut down 99, in part because of the case's legal costs.

Legacy

"Optimo" is included in

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

's collection of ''

The Pitchfork 500 ''The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present'' is a book compiling the greatest songs from 1977 to 2006, published in 2008 by Pitchfork Media. The book focuses on specific genres including indie rock, hip-hop, ele ...

''. ''

Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...

'' ranked "Cavern" 49 on its list of the "Top Basslines of All Time". A weekly club night in Glasgow, Scotland takes its name

Optimo Optimo Espacio ('Optimum Space') was a weekly Sunday-night club based in Glasgow, Scotland at the Sub Club on Jamaica Street, as well as a collective moniker for the night's resident DJ duo. Having run every week since it was founded in 1997, on ...

from the song.

Joey Negro David Russell Lee (born 18 June 1964) is an English DJ and music producer, formerly known by the stage name Joey Negro, which he retired in July 2020 following the George Floyd protests. He has released music under a variety of pseudonyms ...

included "Cavern" in his 2000 ''

Disco Not Disco ''Disco Not Disco'' is a compilation album from the ''Disco Not Disco'' series released by Strut Records in 2000. The album is a probe for both the experimental side of disco and punk genres, as well as underground music scene in general. The fi ...

'' compilation. "Optimo" appears on

Soul Jazz Records Soul Jazz Records is a British record label based in London. Outside of releasing records, the label also publishes books, occasionally films and performs as a DJ set. The music releases labels from a variety of genres, including reggae, house, ...

's 2003 compilation ''

New York Noise ''New York Noise'' is a one-hour indie-rock music video television program which aired from 2003–2009 on NYC Media in New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut. It was created, produced, and edited by Shirley Braha and funded by ...

''. "Cavern" was included in the soundtrack for

Edo Bertoglio Edo Bertoglio (born 1951 in Lugano) is a Swiss photographer, film director and screenwriter. He is the director of '' Downtown 81'' and '' Face Addict''. Life and work Edo Bertoglio received his degree in film directing and editing from the Cons ...

's ''

Downtown 81 ''Downtown 81'' is a 2000 American film shot in 1980–1981. The film was directed by Edo Bertoglio and written and produced by Glenn O'Brien and Patrick Montgomery, with post-production in 1999-2000 by Glenn O'Brien and Maripol. It is a ra ...

'', which depicted Manhattan bands in the early 1980s, and

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...

used it as the theme song for his 2002 drama ''

25th Hour ''25th Hour'' is a 2002 American drama film directed by Spike Lee and starring Edward Norton. Adapted by David Benioff from his 2001 debut novel '' The 25th Hour'', it tells the story of a man's last 24 hours of freedom as he prepares to go to ...

''. "Optimo" was played live by the resident band and by

Morgan Morgan may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment'', also called ''Morgan!'', a 1966 comedy film * ''Morgan'' (2012 film), an American drama * ''Morgan'' (2016 film), an American science fiction thriller * ...

and Alessandra Tripoli, playing

cowbells The cowbell is an idiophone hand percussion instrument used in various styles of music, such as Latin and rock. It is named after the similar bell used by herdsmen to keep track of the whereabouts of cows. The instrument initially and traditio ...

and

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfic ...

during their

Samba Samba () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...

performance in 2021 Italian

Dancing with the stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

tv show.

Track listing

Personnel

; Liquid Liquid * Salvatore Principato – vocals, percussion * Scott Hartley – drums, percussion *

– bass guitar, percussion, sleeve artwork * Dennis Young –

marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...

, percussion ; Technical *

Ed Bahlman Ed Bahlman (born 1950) is the American founder of 99 Records, the postpunk label from New York, home to ESG and Liquid Liquid. He also ran an independent record shop of the same name at 99 MacDougal Street in New York City, an iconic import record ...

–

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

* Don Hünerberg –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

* Howie Weinberg – mastering

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1983 EPs 99 Records EPs Liquid Liquid EPs