Any mix or compilation which Optimo (Espacio)'s JD Twitch lends his name to has the added bonus of being not just an inevitably pleasing listen, but also a sonic excavation of ear-opening dimensions. Blessed with that unexpected and all-too-rare blend of abilities to dig hard for unheard music while spotting and developing to the full the great hooks he finds, any collection of music which Twitch has overseen – on or off dancefloors in Glasgow and around the world – is a joyful education.

With Kreaturen Der Nacht ('Creatures of the Night'), his latest compilation for Strut, Twitch maps a parallel history of German post-punk in the early 1980s, an era when Berlin wasn't the enlightened European hub of designers, DJs and tech companies it is now, but the still-scarred and Berlin Wall-riven frontline in the Cold War. To an extent all of West Germany – from Dusseldorf to Cologne and Hamburg – bore these dark edges of the crack between politics and art, but the economy was high and musicians made hay.

The 16 tracks on this compilation – chosen for reasons of listening pleasure and not to offer a definitive statement on the scene, says Twitch (although we would have loved to have seen a copy which included the gatefold's apparently copious interviews and photography) – take an evocative snapshot of a group of young German musicians who thrived on the influence of punk, the cultural confidence to use their own language and a raw, DIY sensibility which is perfectly Optimo.

From the low bass pulse and yelped vocals of Leben und Arbeiten's 'Amanita' to Ausserhalb's sombre, Siouxsie and the Banshees-like 'Zeitzelle' and Die Haut's motoric, Can/Morricone fusion 'Der Karibische Western', these songs mirror the post-punk which was coming out of the UK during the time covered (1980 to 1985) in their style and their raw analogue production. Mania D's 'Track 4' sounds like a distraught Joy Division with saxophones; Twitch's own edit of Christiane F's 'Wunderbar' is a lost disco-punk classic; and as the record moves on, there are more ambient and often dub or synthesiser-influenced experiments in atmosphere, a parallel reality of classics you never knew existed.

Out now on Strut Records.