Optimo’s J.D Twitch curates original soundtrack for the new rave culture film “Beats”

Adapted from the play by Kieran Hurley, directed by Black Mirror’s Brian Welsh & with Steven Soderbergh as Executive Producer, “Beats” is a new film focussing on 90’s rave culture and the friendship of two young friends in West Lothian.  The two main characters hail from very different backgrounds but are drawn together by a strong kinship and a love of dance music.  “Beats” hinges on the government’s legislation introduced by the Tories in 1994: the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill, a key clause of which cracked down on the U.K.’s burgeoning rave scene by banning music events “wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.”  Pals Johnno and Spanner get together at an underground rave for one last hurrah before their lives head in opposite directions.

Optimo‘s J.D Twitch’s DJ career began at the legendary club Pure in his hometown of Edinburgh and therefore seems an obvious choice to soundtrack a scene he was such an integral part of.  Some of the tracks featured are by The Belleville Three, Carl Craig, Leftfield, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Plastikman, LFO, Hudson Mohawke, Orbital and poignantly after this week’s sad news; The Prodigy.

The film was premiered at Rotterdam’s Film Festival, then aptly Glasgow’s Film Festival earlier this month and is set for U.K release on the 17th May.