Exclusive: Listen to Carl Cox's Full-Throttle Ultra Playlist Ahead of Festival's 25th Anniversary

Saturday, 22 February 2025 05:54

A quarter-century of Ultra Music Festival calls for something special, and the techno legend has delivered with a playlist in which he says he "didn’t hold anything back."

What would Ultra be without Carl Cox?

It's a fair question, considering the techno legend has performed a staggering 19 times since the festival's inception back in 1999. A lynchpin of Ultra's storied RESISTANCE MegaStructure, Cox didn't appear last year but is now returning in 2025 and once again shaping the event's future by debuting an ambitious live show, "Evolution."

The performance will harken back to the ethos of 2022's scintillating Electronic Generations album, Cox's first-ever body of work, he told us at the time, as a live artist. He'll be using a combination of hardware and software "to create and manipulate sounds in real-time," he said.

"I’ll be playing my music live on stage, using a combination of hardware and software to create and manipulate sounds in real-time," Cox explained. "Unlike a DJ set with pre-recorded tracks, or my hybrid set that combines elements of live performance and DJing, I’ll be crafting and evolving the music live, adding an extra layer of spontaneity and energy to the performance."

Celebrating the festival's 25th anniversary, he's also bringing his "Carl Cox Invites" series to Ultra for the first time this year, inviting Adam Beyer, Richie Hawtin DEF EFX X0X, Stephan Bodzin, Joris Voorn, Dubfire EVOLV, Marc Romboy and a special b2b performance between him and Christopher Coe.

We've teamed with the iconic festival to share an exclusive selection of tracks, curated by Cox, for its official Spotify playlist, System Breach.

"My playlist for System Breach is going to knock you out," Cox tells EDM.com. "I didn’t hold anything back for this one and I think it’s a perfect soundtrack for the countdown to Ultra's 25-year anniversary. See you on the dancefloor!"