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. 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 Underworld (that is, music from the band Underworld) during the event.

There will not 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 Is Retro?

Retro is a playlist that we’ve been putting together for Burning Man 2026. It leans heavily on the 1980s, featuring artists like Modern English, Wang Chung, Howard Jones, Human League, Eurythmics, Adam And The Ants, INXS and more. As such, we used generative tools to come up with a piece of playful cover art that had a campy, retro vibe.