Brazilian rock legends Os Mutantes and Iggy Pop’s favorite new punk band, performing in Poland for the first time. A solo set by Low co-founder Alan Sparhawk. Polish singer-songwriter Jann returns with an extraordinary experiment. All that and more exciting additions to the lineup of the OFF Festival Katowice, August 1–3, below. Tickets are now on sale.
Os Mutantes
Kurt Cobain called them revolutionary, brave, and cool. They inspired Beck’s Grammy-winning album Mutations. Ariel Pink invited them on a U.S. tour. Os Mutantes have been playing, on and off, since the 1960s, back when their country was ruled by a military dictatorship, and the tunes running through their heads were a mixture of psychedelic rock, samba and bossa nova. Hailed as Brazil’s answer to the Beatles and compared to Pink Floyd in its early days, Os Mutantes are, next to Gilbert Gil, among the leading figures in the artistic movement known as Tropicália. Their music continues be a source of fascination for artists and audiences worldwide. The list includes Captain Murphy (a.k.a. Flying Lotus), Devendra Banhart, who even personally asked to open for them, and Of Montreal, who collaborated on a track with Os Mutantes. Now it’s time to write the latest chapter of their story – the one where they perform in Poland for the first time – together, at the OFF Festival.
Alan Sparhawk
The husband-and-wife duo Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker were among the most extraordinary collaborative projects in rock music. They performed together as Low at the OFF Festival in 2011. Fourteen years later – and three years after the death of his wife – Alan returns to Katowice with a set of solo songs in which he forges his suffering and his voice into something new and unexpected. “I’m trying to use my voice, but I don’t want to hear my voice,” he said in an interview. Instead, on 2024’s White Roses, My God, the artist employs electronic effects and experiments with his voice, synths, and drum machines. And despite having experimented with practically everything over the course of his musical career, he’s now – in his own words – “stabbing into the unknown.”
Lambrini Girls
Iggy Pop fell in love with Labrini Girls after hearing them on BBC Radio, and went on to record a cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” with them. IDLES took the punk duo under their wing as a support act. They’ve been compared to Bikini Kill, but Phoebe and Lilly play louder and go harder. On their early-2025 debut, Who Let the Dogs Out, they shout about capitalism, the patriarchy, and homophobia, and tickets are selling out fast for this year’s shows in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. In a review of a recent concert, one audience member wrote, “I wonder what it will be like to go to a normal gig again.”
Jann
Fans queued for over ten hours to see this Great September revelation’s return to the showcase festival in 2024. His OFF Festival followup this year is worth the wait, too: Jann comes to Katowice with a premiere performance of his latest musical experiment. It Could Sound Like This is a sonic space in which Jann reinterprets his material, singing in his signature, extraordinary countertenor voice. The set features never-before-performed songs along with new versions of audience favorites. Get ready to witness Jann let his imagination run wild, crossing artistic boundaries and assuming his most authentic form on stage.
Frost Children
Hailing from St. Louis, based in Queens, New York. “I don’t want to be known as a New York artist on my gravestone,” says Angel, one half of the duo Frost Children, founded with his sister, Lula. Both want their music to reach far beyond the city they call home, and they appear to be succeeding admirably. They started out low-key, playing at Sunday church services in Missouri and singing songs in cover bands. Then they discovered Skrillex, Aphex Twin, and the world of hyperpop and bloghouse, and set off to conquer the club scene. Today they’ve got five albums under their belts (the latest being 2023’s Hearth Room) and the moniker of one of New York’s hottest young bands. Liked by Fever Ray, who remixed a track of theirs, and rapper Donny Brown, who contributed to a single.
Portrayal Of Guilt
Call it screamo, hard core, noise, or black metal – this Austin, Texas, outfit has a simple response: “Whatever.” Instead of searching for a genre in which to pigeonhole themselves, Portrayal of Guilt have opted to explore new forms of expression on each album. “We’re not trying to please anyone, we’re just having fun and doing what we want to do, no exceptions,” explains singer/guitarist Matt King. Need proof? Check out their most recent release, 2023’s Devil Music. Inspired by everything from Celtic Frost to movie soundtracks, the LP comprises two parts, with the latter featuring alternative, instrumental recordings of the metal tracks. But despite its chamber-music intimacy, it’s no less hellish than its counterpart. Get ready for an equally infernal performance at the OFF Festival!
Blank Banshee
Hashtags: music, internet, vaportrap, seapunk, mask. That pretty much sums up what we knew about the Canadian producer Blank Banshee when he started releasing music in 2012. The music-industry media soon proclaimed the material on his first online releases, Blank Banshee 0 and Blank Banshee 1, “masterworks of the new digital psychedelia,” and the artist behind the mask became an internet sensation, bursting out of Bandcamp and other websites into real-world gigs. He started performing sold-out live shows, while his vinyl LPs became coveted collectors items. The latest, 4D, came out in 2023. Let’s hope he brings more hard-hitting new material to the OFF Festival in 2025.
The 2025 OFF Festival lineup also features the previously announced artists Kraftwerk, James Blake, Fontaines D.C., Have A Nice Life, MJ Lenderman, Ecco2k, Pa Salieu, María José Llergo, Elias Rønnenfelt, Wednesday Campanella, Hypnosis Therapy, Machine Girl, Nala Sinephro, Geordie Greep, Yaeji, Nilüfer Yanya, Envy, Mong Tong, Snow Strippers, and Kneecap.
