The Seapunk Revival Has Arrived in London

Both Bassvictim and Feng are reviving 2010s musical genres - the first making late-stage, bent-out-of-shape bloghouse, the second rapping over beats laced with optimistic indie pop hooks from the same era. The aesthetics they embrace run parallel to the time of their music influences.

“I grew up on the internet, so I’ve seen all these things," said Feng of his love for 2010s. "We might not have been at the age to properly experience it, but I've always seen it.” Meanwhile, Manow posted her teal hair with a shoutout to her hairdresser, "for making my 13 year old dreams come true." Even pop veterans like FKA Twigs - whose latest album Eusexua has nods to 2010-era Disclosure - recently showed off her blue hair at London aquarium, posing with turtles.

So, what is the throwback here? While the indie sleaze revival - rooted in the 2000s - has been shaping London’s new-gen culture for the past couple of years, this current shift to the 2010s feels like a natural chronological evolution. And there’s only one movement from that time that brings together teal hair, dolphins and aquariums: Seapunk.

Seapunk was created in the 2010s by Kansas City musicians Ultrademon and Zombelle. Both orbited the world of witch house and bonded over a shared passion for deep sea fantasy. As with many left-field creative ideas of the millennial era, Tumblr was key in pastiching their eclectic array of influences into a central, universe-forming hub - the perfect springboard to flesh out their aquatic vision.

The visuals were influenced by 1980s games Ecco the Dolphin 95' fantasy film Waterworld, 90s PC visuals, Bulma from Dragon Ball Z, 94' Cartoon Network series ReBoot...

While today's young seapunk adopters may confuse its pixelated look for 'vintage' 2010s graphics - visuals were influenced from a far earlier time: 1980s games like Ecco the Dolphin and Myst, 1995 fantasy film Waterworld, 90s PC visuals (Microsoft 98’ fonts and icons), Bulma from Dragon Ball Z, 94' Cartoon Network series ReBoot. The music was similarly eclectic, combining elements of witch house, shoegaze and grime with dolphin clicks and wave fx.

But if Feng's t-shirt signals a seapunk comeback - why now? Arguably, the shared experience of growing up online ties younger generations to later-millennial movements. The 2010s feel more relatable than the 00s or 90s; recalling an era of internet creativity, when social media hadn't yet capitalised entire online dynamics. Community and culture felt more prominent than algorithm and addiction.

“There was a whole web of hyper creative, interesting people on the internet. Seapunk came from this hive mind mentality of aesthetics and thought,” recalls Shan Beaste - aka Zombelle, the co-creator of seapunk. “My whole thing was URL dreams, IRL realities.”

Seapunk grew to captivate a young Grimes (whom Beaste knew personally), before Azealia Banks, Rihanna and Lady Gaga co-opted the look. Yet, by entering the mainstream, it was dismissed as something throwaway - the Guardian called it a “ridiculous meme”, the New York Times “a web joke with music”.

These takes ruined the beauty and depth of the utopian vision behind seapunk. Beaste, like much of the witch house community, was following the values of chaos magic - which, in short, has a central goal of build and create something from nothing, through experimentalism, intent and through whatever tools were accessible.

The world of seapunk - created by social outliers who spent a lot of time online - is a clear reflection of that belief.  “..take something from the internet and bring it into real life, and vice versa,” says Beaste. “How does that happen? What does it look like? How big can it get? How far can we take it? How serious do we have to take it? How much do we have to let go of and let other people take over?”

"Seapunk was a fantasy realm built from a digital utopia. The renewed interest in it feels significant in a 2025 dominated by AI Slop."

Seapunk made waves across the world. In Milan, Luca Giudici entered the realm after discovering Ultrademon on Soundcloud, and later launched the influential Tumblr - Seapunkgang - which grew into a club night. Giudici, now the curator of the Lost Music Festival, was attracted to the fact that "it was a whole world, 360-degrees, not just one thing." He recalls the Seapunkgang parties were immersive and inclusive, “people were really feeling part of the movement, rather than just going to a club night”. 

The real-world credentials of seapunk - the fact that it existed offline, in fashion, through hair colours, at parties - is another reason why it is resonating today. Reflecting on 2025 in The Face, London artists describe it as a year of iPhone wariness and what Fakemink calls an era of “nostalgia, looking back,” - a view echoed by others in this piece.

Looking back to the 2010s feels significant in an age of AI slop, when the internet no longer co-exists and compliments real life, and our offline existence has become toxically inseparable to our online profiles.

In July, Kevin Heckart - a visual artist central to crafting the original seapunk aesthetic - declared on social media that seapunk’s second coming is “a reaction to AI, chatGPT, software subscriptions, crypto/vaporware, and fascism. We will rebuild the foundations of authenticity, the environment, and humanity. We will hack technology to serve humanity and not isolate humans to serve tech interests.”

Beaste has similarly noticed the shifting tides: last year, she released a remastered version of Tropicult and worked with Heckart to reboot their 2010s clothing brand Mainframe. “I think a lot of [today's] nostalgia comes from, like, ‘remember when we could experience this fantasy realm, but it wasn't going to be tainted’," she says. While unprecedented cyber-futures were inspiring at the time, she explains, it was undetermined and free. "There were people romanticising the idea that we may have AI, but it was the spirit of humanity seeking expression through these forms.”

On the surface level, a few instances of dyed hair and a dolphin tee may seem like some disparate shades of blue unrelated to seapunk - but the ripples are collectively gathering force, and the mood is ripe for a full-blown revival.

"There's something about Seapunk that really connects.”

“If you're going to have teal hair and be in an aquarium - you're seapunk," confirms Beaste, who describes each element of the movement as "a gateway" - be it hair, aesthetic, music - "a lot of people will dig deeper, because there's something about it that really connects.” she confirms.

Seapunk swelled to mainstream arenas over a decade ago before crashing like a tidal wave, but now a new generation is getting swept into the currents. Seapunk has returned to wash away the toxicity of bot-driven, gen-AI plagued internet - grab that dolphin tee, plug in some Unicorn Boy and get sucked in.