Carl Cox Contributes Unreleased Music to New ’90s Rave Film Skintown
Techno legend Carl Cox has contributed unreleased music to Skintown, a new film set in the 1994 Northern Irish rave scene, and appears on screen during its rave sequence.
Carl Cox is heading to the big screen. The techno icon has contributed unreleased music to the soundtrack of Skintown, a new film set in the 1994 Northern Irish rave scene — and he doesn't just soundtrack it, he actually appears on screen during the film's centerpiece rave sequence.
Skintown premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this month, directed by Kieron J. Walsh and adapted from Ciarán McMenamin's 2018 novel of the same name. The setting is Enniskillen — nicknamed “Skintown” — during the summer of the IRA ceasefire, and the story follows two young locals trying to scheme their way out of their dead-end hometown, stolen MDMA included. Early write-ups have been reaching for Trainspotting comparisons, which tells you roughly what neighborhood this film lives in.
The cast is stacked with familiar faces if you've been watching Irish and British TV lately: Jack Rowan, Chris Walley, Derry Girls' Jamie-Lee O'Donnell, and Hope Ikpoku Jr. all star. “This isn't necessarily a film about the Troubles,” Rowan said of the project. “It's actually just a film about people just getting on with their lives.” Anyone who's read the book knows the rave scene is the emotional core of the story, so the music choices matter here more than in your average period drama.
And those choices are legit. Alongside Cox's unreleased material, the soundtrack pulls in The Prodigy, Elastica, Happy Mondays and Detroit techno pioneer Jeff Mills — a mix that actually reflects what would've been rattling speakers in 1994 rather than a lazy “'90s dance” playlist. Getting Cox himself into the rave sequence is the cherry on top. He was literally the guy behind the decks for a generation of UK ravers in that era, so his cameo works as casting and historical accuracy at the same time.
It's been a busy stretch for the big man, who's kept one foot in new music and one in everything else — we covered his “Welcome To My World” EP and album run a few years back, and since then he's toured relentlessly while moonlighting in motorsport. Film work is a new lane, but honestly, if any DJ's story belongs near a cinema screen, it's the guy who's been headlining raves since before some of his current fans were born.
No word yet on a wider theatrical or streaming release beyond the Edinburgh premiere, so keep an eye out if you want to catch it. A proper rave film with actual unreleased Carl Cox in it? That's worth the ticket on principle.
