Golem Dance Cult Turns It up on Pretty at Dawn as the Band Moves Its Studio to New South Wales
Eleven Videos in, an Australian Dark Wave Band Finds Its Place in a Global Revival
A cello, a guitar and a guest voice share the room on Pretty at Dawn, a dark wave song by Golem Dance Cult. The band turned it into a music video at the turn of the year. The song first appeared on the band’s 2025 album, and the video followed on 30 December 2025. It arrives as the Australian band marks five years together and moves its studio north to New South Wales.
Golem Dance Cult’s music is in the playlist below, and their coverage across our network sits on Golem Dance Cult’s artist profile. Pretty at Dawn reached IndieRock.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Have a listen, then read on for where the band fits.
The Dark Wave Revival Runs on Videos, Record Shops and Independent Radio, and Golem Dance Cult Uses All Three
The current dark wave revival is as much a visual movement as a sound. Its records travel through short clips and music videos. Meanwhile, its small labels still sell vinyl to fans who buy it in shops. In that world a band’s look is part of the release, not an extra.
Golem Dance Cult have leaned into that from the start. This year the band marked five years together with a tally of one EP, two albums and eleven videos. Pretty at Dawn is the latest of those videos. Milan Bruneau created it, and Klaus Karloff edited it.
In addition, the theme suits the genre’s taste for the gothic. In the band’s own description, the song is about a relationship that is not what it seems. It asks for a hard look in the mirror, which is no easy thing for a vampire.
Where Golem Dance Cult Fit, From the Black Obsidian Woodshed to Record Shops in Northcote and Katoomba
This is a self-produced band. Charles Why wrote the music, shares the lyric credit with Laur and plays the guitar. Charles Why also produced the song with Klaus Karloff, whom the band calls its spiritual producer. Inga Liljeström sings on it, Jean-Philippe Feiss plays the cello, and it came out on Pugilat Deluxe.
For years the band worked out of a studio it calls the Black Obsidian Woodshed. Then, in September, it moved the whole operation to New South Wales, and the new studio is now close to running. Meanwhile, Liljeström has given the band some of her own sound therapy instruments for the songs still to come.
The scene around the band is a physical one. In Northcote, the records sit in Rowdy’s Records and Rathdowne Records. They are also at Captain Stomp in Melbourne, and at Velvet Fog Records & CDs in Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains. The band also sat down for a long interview with Infectious Unease. Afterwards they called it a reminder of why independent radio and the underground still matter.
Moreover, the next video leans further into Australian imagery. The band are working on a clip for Ned Kelly’s Arms. By chance, a recent visit to an art gallery in Sydney coincided with an exhibition of Sidney Nolan, whose Ned Kelly series is among the best known paintings in Australian art.
The Adjacent Acts Around Golem Dance Cult, From Minsk’s Molchat Doma to the Film-Making Boy Harsher
The closest comparison for the band’s second-life story is Molchat Doma. The Minsk trio released Etazhi in 2018, and it found a worldwide audience in 2020 when its songs spread online. Pretty at Dawn is now on that path. It is a song from an album, given a new route to listeners through its video.
Boy Harsher show where the visual side of the revival can go. The American duo made The Runner in 2022, a short horror film with its own soundtrack. Golem Dance Cult work at a smaller scale. Even so, eleven videos in five years come from the same instinct.
For listeners in Australia who follow dark wave, art rock and alternative rock, Pretty at Dawn is the obvious way in.
From the IndieRock.News curator team: “A cello and a guest singer on a self-produced dark wave record is a brave call for an independent band. On Pretty at Dawn it is the right one, and the video gives it a stage.”
Watch Pretty at Dawn on YouTube and Follow the Band on Bandcamp, Spotify and Instagram
The video plays in the player on this page. Then follow Golem Dance Cult on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X. You can also hear an earlier single on Spotify.
About Author
