Atomic Octopus is in no way, shape or form going to be a sound camp at Burning Man. There are no massive sound rigs, there aren’t even any tiny sound rigs, but we do have a couple speakers to provide for a little music in our front-of-house space for guests to enjoy throughout the week. We’re also excited to feature some Occo Music for Darklings during the event.

There won’t be any DJ’s or live performers that we are aware of, but in an effort to curate a fun and wonderful atmosphere we have been working on a number of playlists and specially made mixes. And those playlists have, in turn, created another fun opportunity for art as we played around with generative tools to work on some cover art. Since that art won’t really be public-facing on the playa (it will live in the music player app on campmate devices), we figured that we would subsequently share some of those pieces here on the site.

What Exactly Is A Darkling?

Darklings are a term used to describe fans of the band Garbage. They are an alternative powerhouse that formed in the mid-1990’s, featuring vocalist Shirley Manson along with legendary music producers and accomplished musicians in their own right Steve Marker, Duke Erikson, and Butch Vig. In 2026, Atomic Octopus campmate Trilo made a series of mixtapes of their music that clocks in at just over 5 hours, and we thinks does an admirable job of presenting some of their best in a delightful way.

Playing with generative tools, we soon discovered that most AI models did not know what the boys in the band looked like. We weren’t comfortable using someone else’s commercial photographs without permission, so for this cover we pivoted to a piece of art featuring singer Shirley Manson having drinks with a very suspicious steampunk octopus gentleman. It passes our test for fun and whimsical, and certainly does the job of being playlist cover art.