The Monster Children Guide To Dark Mofo’s MUSIC Program
Photos provided by Dark Mofo
‘Audiences have spoken and Dark Mofo is back’, Chris Twite, the festival’s artistic director says.
After a year hiatus from regular programming, the iconic midwinter festival is back and darker than ever. Since its launch in 2013, the festival has delved into the interplay of darkness and light, exploring contemporary rituals, mythology, and philosophy, through an eclectic mix of large-scale public art, music, fire, food, light, and sound. Dark Mofo brings a stacked musical lineup of artists and bands from all over the world that each revel in the darkness.
There is a big selection of incredible acts who still have tickets left for their shows. Last week we told you about our favourite picks from the festival’s art program, this week we will be telling you about our favourites from the exciting and illusive musical line-up, who still have tickets for sale and performances are exclusive to Dark Mofo.
It’s time to book tickets for an experience you’ll be talking about for the rest of your life, making your friends envious they didn’t bite the bullet to visit Dark Mofo 2025.
Cold Cave
Cold Cave represents the dark mysteriousness of the Dark Mofo festival, maybe better than anyone on the eclectic line up. The Los Angeles-based duo of Wesley Eisold and Amy Lee create music with Cold Cave, that is as dark but freeing as their name suggests. Having been described as a ‘collage of darkwave, noise and synthpop’, Cold Cave’s music comes with a heavy appreciation for the post-punks and new wavers of the late 70s and early 80s. Their synth heavy sound paired with Wesley Eisold’s deep vocals full of emotion, make you want to move, cry, and fall in love. Cold Cave are fucking amazing, even just sitting at the library writing this and listening to their 2024 album Passion Depression my head is uncontrollably bouncing around to the sounds of the synths, there is no chance of standing still during a Cold Cave set, go have the best time and wear black, just because.
Photo: Boy Harsher by Emma Wondra
Boy Harsher
If you haven’t had enough of feeling like you’re in a German club, dressed in all black, dancing in a sea of goths, watching Xmal Deutschland perform in 1983, continue the darkwave trip with Boy Harsher. The Massachusetts-based duo of vocalist Jae Matthews and producer Augustus Miller, create an electronic sound whose influences range from early industrial to electronic body music and the likes of Suicide and DAF, while also drawing from cinema. This pool of influence creates something special and unique, one they have likened to a David Lynch movie. Miller's minimal synth beats wrap around Matthews’ sensual vocals with lyrics about desire, fantasy, and loneliness, which at times are chant-like, as if performed for a contemporary ritual. Boy Harsher’s music is sexy, desirable. They’re a band with a dark mystery that reflects the desires of Dark Mofo and as a band who Miller says writes music for live shows, there is no chance you aren’t going to have a good time during their set.
LUCY (Cooper B. Handy)
Another Massachusetts based artist on the line up, LUCY (Cooper B. Handy) is one of the most interesting acts in current music.
He makes music that is in a lane of his own, he is sort of a rapper, but at the same time you could also compare him to Daniel Johnston. LUCY’s music is exciting, versatile, and eclectic, his lyrics are fun, playful, a bit silly, emotional and will get stuck in your head instantly. He does things that shouldn’t work, like sampling the Titanic love theme, but when listening to his music, it all makes perfect sense. Even just looking at the list of people he’s worked with, on paper makes no sense, the likes of hip hop producer and Surf Gang’s Evilgiane, Drain Gang’s Whitearmor, Boy Harsher and the pianist and lyricist God Wisdom, but listening to the work he’s produced with each artist, it again makes perfect sense.
His discography is more prolific than anyone else in music right now – maybe other than Lil B – just since January 2024, he has released three albums as LUCY, one with his band The Taxidermists, a plethora of EPs and debuted his project Safe Mind with Boy Harsher’s Augustus Miller. Over the past few years, I have fallen in love with LUCY, delving into his long and diverse discography. I love him so much. Fall in love with him the way I have, let your body move while his lyrics take laps around your mind.
Fader called his 2022 album with God Wisdom, On Thin Ice as ‘Perfect Winter Music for Weirdos’, it’s true, it’s perfect for the weirdos like me who write for this magazine, the weirdos like you who read this magazine and the weirdos like you who will attend Dark Mofo, a perfect winter festival for weirdos. From a swamp in Massachusetts to an island in the middle of the ocean 240 kilometres off Australia’s mainland. Don’t you dare fucking miss this.
Thaiboy Digital
A standout on the line up, fresher and unlike anyone on there, the Bangkok-based artist, Thaiboy Digital brings his own take on the darkness of Dark Mofo. Growing up in Stockholm, Thaiboy Digital cut his teeth in the music scene with his close friends Bladee, Whitearmor, Yung Sherman, and Ecco2k who eventually became the revered Drain Gang and collaborated heavily with Yung Lean. Thaiboy Digital is one of the pioneers of the ethereal and internet influenced rap that Drain Gang has popularised. It’s music that feels like the internet has been blended up and put into song form, delivered by a group of guys, dressed in the craziest but coolest outfits you’ve ever seen. There is a reason Drain Gang is as popular as they are now, taking the soundcloud rap of the mid-2010s putting it with electronic, witch house, nightcore, inspired instrumentals and creating something unlike anything that had been made prior. It’s bouncy as it is dark. You can cry to Drain just as much as you can dance to it, just ask any kid on the street what they think of Drain Gang and if you think you should see Thaiboy Digital. They’ll say yes to the latter.
The Horrors
It only makes sense that a festival in 2025 features a band from the post-punk revival of the mid-2000s. England’s The Horrors are the perfect candidate for Dark Mofo, gothic, a bit strange, loud then quiet, and reflective. For nearly two decades, the band has stayed active with only a short period of a pause during the pandemic years; they are back, releasing their sixth album, Night Life in March 2025. After the short pause, Faris Badwan says the band feels like ‘a re-invigorated project.’ Night Life is an album that is heavier, deeper, darker with a more atmospheric sound, than they’ve made in the past. It is the perfect album to bring to Tasmania, at the time of the year where more life on the island is spent at night than any other time of the year, the two and two go together like bread and butter. A perfect album to experience those uncomfortable feelings bubble up and hit the surface in that cold dark Tasmanian winter.
Brighter Death Now
Brighter Death Now is the perfect act for a festival that doesn’t shy away from the bold and challenging. The project of Roger Karmanik, the founder of the Swedish record label, Cold Meat Industry, is the original death industrial act, combining Whitehouse-style walls of white noise with churning repetitive sounds and obscure subject matter. It is loud, grim, distorted and in your face, making you feel lost, with the dire need to find yourself again. With incredible song titles like ‘Hate Is for Beginners’, ‘Kill Useless People’, ‘To Die Lullabye’ and ‘Happy, Happy, Happy’, which is the loudest and most droney wall of sound I have ever heard. It’s music for fucking freaks, dark, mysterious and so fucking eerie you wouldn’t want to listen to it while driving down a back dirt road alone at night. Watching it live is an experience that will leave you existential, with insane amounts of synths and pedals, a violin, and harrowing noises breathed into the microphone from Karmanik himself. A live Brighter Death Now show is unlike anything you’ve ever seen or heard, leaving you stunned, feeling like you just listened to music for the first time ever. Bring ear plugs if you care for the health of your ears.
For all you dark fuckers out there, for more information on all things Dark Mofo, go here for more.